Blood
by Imyoshi
Summary: Every soul he consumed made him stronger. Every sensation he tossed away freed him from the bonds holding him back. Jaune Arc, a Grimm-Human hybrid, adventured out to make the world a better place. Behind those false smiles, he carried a burdened of endless hunger. He was ruthless—the anti-hero—The Yellow Death and Ruby Rose failed to see the Beowolf hiding in sheep's clothing.
1. Blood

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing of RWBY.

* * *

 **Blood**

 **By: Imyoshi**

Life and Death were two sides of the same coin.

Truthfully, Jaune couldn't understand why his mind was anchored to such a thought, it seemed redundant. It might've had something to do with the way Pyrrha's hand hovered over his chest, directly above his beating heart. At a moment's notice, she could pierce her fingers into his skin and end it all. These thoughts were random at best and childish at their worst.

Yet even still, Death prowled like a wild wolf hunting his thoughts—plaguing his mind.

"For it is in passing that we achieve immortality. Through this, we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all. Infinite in distance and unbound by death, I release your soul, and by my shoulder, protect thee."

Surrounded by a calm force of energy, Jaune forgot to breathe as the mantra awakened something buried deep in his soul. Loving warmth slowly raised from every possible pore of his body, and the easy smile blossoming on his face couldn't possibly be tainted. Pyrrha matched a small smile alongside his, and everything seemed utterly perfect for them as Jaune's snowy Aura flourished forth.

However— _Crunch_!—perfection's only a fleeting possibility that's gone before anyone truly spotted it.

They never saw it coming. Never! Only Jaune and Pyrrha's bodies jerked movements alert them to what's happening before their instincts could protect them. And before either of the two Huntsmen-in-Training realize what was truly happening, Jaune's on the floor with a Beowolf's jaws wrapped firmly against his neck, and claws pinched deeply into where his heart beat a mile-a-minute.

"Jaune!"

Frozen, Pyrrha Nikos couldn't move fast enough to strike the Grimm; hone instincts barely kicking in, before the Beowolf's claws have already torn through Jaune's skin and armor, and at his defenseless heart. By the time her spear had successfully impaled the beast's back, the damage's already far too great. She could see it. He could _feel_ it.

The blood... _his_ blood... it's _everywhere_.

It dripped both down his jaw and destroyed neck from the damage done, and the champion knew from the dull, dying light in his eyes, that he couldn't survive this. Not with his Aura barely reaching the surface. The injury alone was too great to heal on a moment's whim. There's simply not enough time to heal the damage, not enough experience to properly channel the Aura to protect and rebuild the missing tissue. There's just not enough time.

But there was enough for her to kneel down and let out a strangle breath—a desperate, weak wail that broke apart in her throat.

Reaching out, her hand quivered as she's unable to control her emotions. Her hold on Jaune's weakening fingers was all for naught. "... I'm sorry."

Jaune made an attempt at saying his last words, _anything_ , but the damage done by the Beowolf's teeth had ripped apart too much. Only a strangled _gasp_ came forth before the Arc closed his eyes for the last time, and Pyrrha couldn't hold herself together anymore and ran as fast as her feet could carry her.

She ran away, powerless to stop some stinging tears from escaping her, blind to Jaune's snowy Aura still working to keeping its host alive and moving. Blind to the dead Beowolf, lodged between Jaune's heart and jaw, beginning its process of turning to dust. And blind to the Grimm's ashes converging alongside his Aura in a mix of warmth and cold.

She's blind to it all, too busy running away.

And Jaune's heart was left to fend for itself in a monster-infested forest.

...

Running, Pyrrha's trekking fast through the woods, and she didn't have any sense of direction. All her mind could focus on was Jaune's unfortunate death. All she could see was the pool of crimson. Her failure! That's what it was. A cruel reminder of her failure to protect. The images were still so vivid. They plague her like a bad disease. Following her without rest. And she lacked any sort of cure.

Some Huntsmen she's turning out to be, training or not. Couldn't even protect one person from the weakest of Grimm.

The Beowolf's jaws, she could still see them wrapped tightly around Jaune's neck, even after her spear had struck and killed the beast. Still see the blood and lifeless eyes that'd probably haunt her dreams for years to come. Only a few minutes into it and she'd already seen someone die. And it wasn't just a random face. It was someone she wanted desperately as a friend. Someone who only wanted a nice, quirky girl to talk to.

It's her fault. She kept telling herself that. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she could hear her logical part of her brain deny that false accusation, but Pyrrha bluntly ignored that wail, falling into a sliver of despair. The irony wasn't lost on her. If only she had been more careful, more aware of her surroundings, then perhaps Pyrrha could have saved him. Saved the one person who had no knowledge about her, and treated just like another random girl like she's always dreamed of since her rise to stardom.

A fool's dream.

 _Crash_!

Not paying any real attention into her run, Pyrrha crashed right into another body. The surprise collision almost knocked her off her feet, but her adrenaline's far too high for such nonsense. A quick dig of her foot prevented her fall, but not so much for the other person. And the champion's forced to wince when she noticed her earlier and _eccentric_ companion, Weiss, fall flat onto her butt in what looked to be a nasty topple.

It didn't take long for the girl in question to do a quick glare at the perpetrator, but her glare died, without missing a beat, when her eyes fell upon Pyrrha. A spark registered in her eyes and she grinned proudly in satisfaction, pushing back any lingering doubts back into the recesses of her mind, like the annoying grin of a certain red-hooded girl who she could spot out the corner of her vision.

Weiss was up before Pyrrha could offer her a hand. "Pyrrha! I'm so glad to see you!"

The enthusiasm wasn't quite returned. She forced to smile. "Oh! Hello, Weiss. It's nice to see you as well. I'm sorry for bumping into you—!"

"Nonsense! I'm perfectly fine!" Weiss grabbed the champion by her wrist, shaking it with a little too much enthusiasm. "I was just looking for a partner. And Fate seems to have brought us together. With the both of us working together, we'll be the strongest partners in Beacon. This couldn't be better!"

Pyrrha attempted to smile, but it's a poor thing compared to the first time she heard Weiss's plan. Her heart was simply not in it, not anymore. Yet, sad as the fact may be, Pyrrha Nikos _was_ in search of a replacement partner after her recent scuffle with Death. The thrill may have fled, but the mission still remained. No matter what, abandoning her mission after watching a comrade fall wouldn't do his death justice. Quite the opposite in fact.

So Pyrrha's forced to break off the one-sided, awkward handshake with a soft pull. Luckily for her, Weiss didn't seem to notice her hesitation. "Okay."

"Perfect!" Or she pretended to simply not see it. Though Weiss did smile brighter for her, Pyrrha just couldn't find the energy to care.

"We should get going."

Neither Weiss nor the silver eyes peeking from behind a tree catch the hollowness of Pyrrha's tone. Only when the two new partners leave, did the owner of the eyes remove herself from her hiding spot, and into the middle of the clearing where Weiss and Pyrrha had stumbled upon each other. A girl no more than fifteen, both in age and mindset, sighed as she watched the fire and ice combo leaver her behind. And she could understand the redheaded one, but for Weiss to turn her back on her without so much as a passing glance, well, it really stung.

Pride and confidence were a fickle thing, and hers had been stabbed repeatedly in the back.

Ruby Rose sighed and went the direction Weiss's partner had come from, hoping to find her Relic as fast as possible, and to maybe avoid bumping into them, but it was seventy percent the mission. And the quicker the better. She didn't want to run into anymore mean people. Maybe if she's lucky enough, Ruby would bump into Jaune again. Screw her earlier opinion on him. Anyone was better than the resident Ice Queen. So what if he appeared useless in a fight, she could be wrong for all she knew. Dead, _dead_ wrong!

A large part of her was really hoping for that.

Humming sadly to herself, Ruby found herself kicking a pebble for comfort with her shoulders hunched. The sound of the rock bouncing aimlessly on the forest floor did little to ease her conscious. She tried to cheer herself up, not liking the idea of Grimm closing in on her position, but found the action more impossible than getting her dad to be cool. It's not her fault she sneezed on Weiss. Okay, maybe it was a tiny bit her fault, but she apologized! Her dad always said that apologies made things better. Now Ruby's learning that's not the case, and her dad's a big, fat noodle-head. Saying sorry had only made her angrier.

"So much for making friends, Yang."

...

Left to die alone, a soul tried to reach the light at the end of the tunnel, but the darkness proved to be faster than even the light.

Without hope to hold onto, there's only despair to pull a person under. And Jaune sunk into the cold abyss, finding the reflection of the light murky between the ripples of hopelessness. And the deeper he sunk, the colder he got, and the harder it was to see the light. And when all hopes seemed lost, a beacon of light broke through the cold water and gripped his soul in an iron grip.

The rest was up to Jaune now.

His heart beat weakly, pushing and moving the Grimm's dust that merged with his Aura to the holes where his blood continued to spill. The newly born Aura still reached out and clung to Jaune and the Grimm's fragments, slowly attaining life in a whole new way. And slowly, but surely, the snowy white complexion of Jaune's Aura turned deathly pitch-black as the remnants of the Grimm got absorbed into his body by the pull of his Aura and frantic heart.

All the warmth his Aura gave withered away to the Grimm's ashes, gradually corrupting his Aura until nothing remained except for a husk of a shell that's bedridden with loneliness. A part of the Grimm's dust had transformed the opened gashes from the Beowolf's assault into freshly created bone-plating. The other half had restored the blood running in Jaune's body with a murky fluid, dropping his body's natural temperature to a new level, keeping him alive and his heart beating strong once more with an unnatural rhythm.

Eventually, the sensation of life came back to Jaune Arc, and he opened his eyes back to the world of Remnant. The dark blotches slowly dissolve away from his vision, and the clear sky and surrounding bush of trees focus once more. Birds were chirping a blandish tune and he felt unnaturally different. Not in a bad way, but not in a good way, either.

Just different.

Born in a pool of his own blood, Jaune Arc slowly stood up with renew vigor, wrapped in a feeling of pure cold and sensing a consuming hollow sensation deep within his chest that never seemed to die. Large parts of his body hurt—strongly his neck and chest—and this gnawing hunger settled within the pits of his broken soul. And eventually the pain subsided, leaving behind a husk of loneliness and detachment where even the blood fell off his clothes effortlessly. It would warrant a reaction, or at least should, but he found it impossible to care.

"What... happened?" He's left standing in the clearing, alone. The blood underneath his feet spoke of a story he couldn't read. "The last thing I remember... was Pyrrha unlocking my Aura... and then I think a _Grimm_ attacked my neck?"

Checking to see if his memories proved right, Jaune's very surprised to find a sturdy like material attached to his neck, kind of reminding him of the sensation of callouses on his skin. It's slightly hollow to the touch, a small _thump_ of his knuckles reveal that, but Jaune could still feel his nerves react to the perception of touch. And when he tried to remove it, normal pain came forth, effectively stopping the Arc from continuing his action after a few more attempts.

Faintly scared, he quickly grabbed Crocea Mors and tilted the handle of the blade to get a reflection off the polished metal. Instantly, he spotted the white layer of bone where the Beowolf had bit him, lightly frightened to even consider touching the strange material again. There's a few rows of sharp points sticking up on the bone that distinctly resemble a layer of teeth that curved halfway across his neck until it reached a little more than halfway, before it abruptly stopped. The bone's short, hardly half the length of Jaune's neck, but against his skin, it was plain as day.

"Okay, I'm totally freaking out now." Except he's not, not at all actually.

Jaune Arc couldn't really feel that emotion or properly act on it, saying it more based off force of habit. He's scared, but the dark glare of his eyes on his great-great grandfather's sword said otherwise. It didn't reflect back his panicky emotions and he's no longer so sure if he's truly frighten or acting out the emotions for his own twisted benefit. And for a split-second, he thought he could make out a thin veil of darkness around his person before it faded away.

Tilting his sword at a hue of blood dripping down his cheek, he spotted the same cut from before. "Didn't Pyrrha say my Aura was supposed to heal this and protect me? Wait? Is this boney thing my Aura? Damn, I really wish I knew what Aura was. And where is Pyrrha?"

Peering away from Crocea Mors, Jaune traced his finger over the cut, drawing blood. Out of habit he stuck his thumb in his mouth, tasting the irony liquid in a childlike fashion. Strangely, he found the taste impeccable. Flavor exploded in his mouth. He wanted more—no, he _needed_ more, but refrained from eating away his own blood. Still, it was already too late.

He already developed a taste, and by depriving himself of a meal, that gnawing hunger had returned with a vengeance. Like a craving it was impossible to ignore. Only this craving wasn't exactly aimed at blood, but a taste he didn't know the name to. Jaune just knew that blood would lead to the meal his soul longed for. A frightening thought, or so he would assume. Morality just didn't seem to be with him today.

 _Gnaw_!

A sudden, stronger urge stopped Jaune's thoughts, calling to him with a high need. He didn't know what to make of it, but the impulse forced him to stare off to the forest, making him wait until the Arc could see an outline of a very familiar reaper rustling angrily through the leaves. And without even needing to hear her voice, he knew she felt sad, betrayed, infuriated, and most of all, very, _very_ hurt.

Beyond strange.

"Dumb, Weiss." Ruby grumbled sadly as she walked through the lonely woods with the pebble she's been kicking around her only friend. "Stupid bee's knees... stupid rules... stupid negative friend. Who needs them! I'll show her! I'll show them all! I'll find a better partner! One who doesn't ditch me for someone stronger!"

Not knowing what to do, Jaune's urge returned, stronger than ever. It's putting both the sensation of fear and distrust into his brain the moment his eyes lock with her silvery ones, but the Arc quickly shook most of the emotions away—because that's Ruby and there's nothing to be afraid of—only leaving behind traces of fear and some longing of anticipation to bold alongside him.

The fear won over.

Quickly grabbing the hood of his sweater, Jaune pulled it over his head, obscuring away everything with the hint of shadows, except for the shine of his cobalt eyes, strands of his hair sticking out here and there, and part of his lower face. Part of the boney plate peeked out as well, and the blood from his cut had finally dried from natural healing. The fear had still forced him to grab Crocea Mors and shield and hold them in a false sense of security.

Jaune didn't understand why he did all that, but he did. No matter how hard to tried to latch onto other emotions to level on, they simply turned to ash between his figurative fingers, dust to the wind. So when Ruby spotted Jaune, after kicking her lone pebble and watching it land beside his feet, she didn't immediately recognize him. It might've had something to do with the way Jaune's empty eyes pierced Ruby's inner soul like a predator on the hunt, or even the way Jaune's posture screamed out dangerous. She's not too sure.

But what she was sure was that she fell down on her butt from the surprise, falling prey to a tree root she overlooked.

"Gah!" Wincing from the fall, Ruby quickly got up. Her hand's already reaching for Crescent Rose. "Who are you? What do you want?"

Lost, Jaune could _literally_ feel the fear and slight tremors of anger coming from her and an even stronger urge to reach out toward it. Instead, his eyes widen slightly in shock, to be followed with a light, hollow laughter that rattled Ruby's emotions even more so. How he knew? Simple!

These whispers told him so.

"Ruby? It's me..." He moved to remove his hoodie, but instead stopped halfway, enough to allow for his eyes and blond hair to pop out. The whispers told him to. Why he listened was up in the air. "Jaune Arc! Don't tell me you forgot already? You must stink at memory games."

"Jaune? Is that... you?"

He found her skepticism amusing. "The one and only. Unless you know another Jaune Arc." The joke's as flat as a flat-line. Maybe he should try smiling next time. "Ruby? Are you okay? You look scared?"

That would be putting it mildly. She's petrified. Her heart must be racing with how much fear she's throwing out. Which turned out for the worst since her emotions were like a sweat nectar he couldn't get enough of. It's wrong for him to be enjoying her fear, but the word _wrong_ didn't seem to exist in his dictionary anymore. But that didn't mean he was going to send her to an early grave. Ruby's still his first friend. That _should_ mean a lot to him. He's trying his damn hardest to make it so. And it's not working.

Time to throw in the Arc charms. With a simple throw of his arm, Jaune held Crocea Mors over his shoulder while he gave Ruby the best smile he could muster. "C'mon, lazy butt, get off you keister! The floor must be crawling with bugs."

Ruby still hadn't moved from her spot. Instincts scream at her to be careful. Uncle Qrow's always told her to rely on those. "Jaune? Is that really you?"

No one could blame him for rolling his eyes. "Are we really playing twenty questions? Just a fair warning, I have seven sisters, you have one. You're not going to be beat me."

Evidently surprised, she edged closer. "... You look different?"

Proper protocol would be to lower the hoodie and give his friend a warm smile. However, the little voice in his head denied the idea, whispering gibberish that oddly resembled not fear, but cynicism. An abnormal line of thinking for the Arc since Ruby was a friend. Yet, the feelings demand he remained hidden, blocking out any sort of emotions to surface forth. More importantly, Jaune gnawed over the fact that whispers plagued his thoughts. They didn't sound like his inner voice, more tone deaf and animal-like. And the more he studied over them, the more he wished he could feel a sliver of fear. At least then things would make far more sense.

But he trusted Ruby, screw his random instincts.

Grabbing the sides of his hoodie, he slowly lowered it for Ruby to find out what's so _different_ about her friend, and Jaune could _feel_ her confusion and fear melt away into curiosity in a heartbeat. But he's not really focused on that. His attention's captured by her silver eyes. They're so, deadly? Whoa! Time-out! Where did that come from?

"Whoa!" Ruby's instantly by his side with a fluster of rose petals not too far behind, touching the boney substance on his neck with a soft poke of her finger. It felt pleasant. "What is this? Is this your Semblance?"

Honestly? "I don't know. I don't even know what a Semblance is. I just woke up and there it was!"

"You were asleep?"

"No..." he recalled, flashing back to the incident. "One minute Pyrrha was unlocking my Aura, and the next I'm waking up to find all this and no partner in sight. Speaking of Pyrrha? I wonder what happened to my partner. Have you seen her? She has long, red hair and is as tall as me."

Feeling all her happiness die, Jaune saw Ruby's anger returning as she crossed her arms adorably. "Hmph! Don't talk to me about stupid partners! Mine ditched me... for yours!"

"Wait?" First a pause and then a tight frown. "What? What do you mean?"

Throwing her hands up in the air, Ruby glared and began walking in circles. "One minute me and Weiss are in the woods, and the next, Pyrrha runs by and Weiss accepts her as her partner, even though we saw each other first." Her anger died to sadness. Her arms droop. "She ditched me. She hated me so much that she broke the rules and ditched me. There must be something wrong with me if she didn't want to be my partner."

Being drawn into her sadness, and surprisingly not feeling any sort of his own at Pyrrha's sudden new choice in partnership, Jaune's overcome with the longing to bask in Ruby's grief, never wanting to be away from the sensation. It's a terrible thought, this much he knew, but for some odd reason he's attracted to that broken crack in her voice and dead atmosphere she'd found herself trapped in.

It's all so intoxicating, to the point he never wanted to leave her side. Yet, the gentler, more Arc side of him overpowered that need, but who knew how long that side would survive with his new mindset. Already the darkness was bashing it away.

"Who needs them?" The words were easy and powerful and take no second thoughts. The old Arc charm prevailed after all. "We can be partners! Better partners, even! We'll show them what they're missing! Nobody ditches us! What do you say, partner?"

Jaune's not going to lie, he really missed all that melancholy she had, but another part of Jaune loved the blossoming smile that's growing on Ruby's face. It's all so confusing and utterly terrifying, and he couldn't figure out why there seemed to be an internal battle going on inside his head. Every emotion he had couldn't find the right moment to act, so Jaune's been forced to improvise since the moment he laid eyes on her. Truth be told, it's getting a little exhausting.

Renewed, Ruby pulled on Jaune's sleeve, forcing his hand up along hers, thus shining Crocea Mors in the sunlight. "You're right! We don't need them! We'll make the bestest partners that Beacon's ever seen!"

"I'm not sure if bestest is a word, Ruby."

Ignoring him. "That'll show Weiss and Pyrrha!"

Freeing his hand and accepting defeat, a smile slowly morphed to match hers. "Yea... that'll show them."

This was the part he would feel bad about getting mock revenge on someone who had been only been nice and supportive to him, but the Arc couldn't find it in him to care. No matter what his mind told him, what years of wearing his emotions on his sleeve showed over and over again, the troubling emotions refused to come forth, lacking in a sense. The smile he had was somewhat real as well, different and stronger, but more forced than it should ever be.

Almost like a fragment of him had died and he had to act the part to keep up appearances.

Plus, he's not the only one thinking it, even if said adorable person didn't verbally tell him. Her emotions spoke louder than words. No matter how impossible the idea of sensing emotions seemed to him, there's no emotional doubt to back it up, so by a process of elimination, he could feel emotions. There's no two-ways about it.

Jaune knew he could feel a slight hitch of fear in Ruby's glow, and he could almost see it in her eyes with the way she had quickly adverted her gaze. All of it confused him. These feeling were not just coming from Ruby, but from all around them. Other feelings like happiness and frustration have also made themselves known to the knight, and he's sorely tempted to seek them out and—?

And what?

An honest share of him wanted to seek their attention, possibly bask in the negative ones, but another; darker share wanted to snuff out those feelings! To break them until they're nothing but dust and then devour the leftovers for his consumption! That empty hunger of his demanded it with a bloodthirsty roar and curdling fetish. Like his first taste of blood, just maybe a tad stronger. And it should scare him.

Please Monty, why didn't it scare him? Why did it provoke no feeling? No emotion? Nothing. How come nothing made sense anymore?! Why couldn't he feel? What happened to him? Where's his humanity? When did he ever lose it. Who stole it?

Each one of these thoughts scared him, but his smile remained unchanged. The edge was never lost to him, and the sensations were pressing down on his psyche like an invisible weight. Only the depressing emotions seem to push away the weight, if only for a little while. And he's ready to go seek them out to revel in their presence. Yea, there's definitely something wrong with him.

He wanted to blame them on his new urges, those random whispers that exist in the back of his mind, but that would only make him at fault again. Talk about a double-edged sword.

If this was Aura, then he didn't want it.

"C'mon!" Jaune urged, wanting nothing more than to seek out the emotions. The hunger's getting to him. "We better go complete the mission. We don't want to get kicked of Beacon before we even start. How else are we supposed to make everyone else look bad?"

"No..." Ruby grumbled, finger to lip plus a pout. "That would be bad. Yang will never let me hear the end of it."

Relieved, Jaune hid his head to the world, hiding away behind his hoodie once more. The darkness comforted him in ways he couldn't put into words. Luckily, Ruby didn't seem to mind, actually, she's taking the time to hide behind her hood as well. They're hoodie-buddies, both of them. That alone helped her mood improve.

It might've had something to do with the bouts of depression she had. People tended to hide away in the dark whenever sadness became too much to bear, he should know, but feelings or no feelings, Jaune didn't like to see Ruby sad in anyway. Grief didn't suit the little reaper. No matter how much the darkness hiding in plain sight loved to feed off her emotions and tell him so. Some of his Arc pride still resided within him. And it probably helped that he liked the way the shadows of her hood complimented her innocence.

She looked cute. Jaune liked cute. Good to see he could still feel _something_. Be it a side of lust, but he'd take it! Sins are fine. They're totally fine.

"Well come on! Let's go! I bet I could beat you out of this forest!" He pretended to be happy for her sake and challenged her to a race. "First one out... is... a... loser?"

 _Whoosh_!

Jaune Arc's left standing there, talking to a floating rose petal that was originally his new partner, while Ruby was busy instantly vanishing from his line of sight, but not from his range of perception. Even if trace amounts of doubts washed over from his side, farther down in the forest, Jaune could feel Ruby's new happy emotions wrapping around her like his snuggly onesie.

It's both a relief and disappointment.

He just suckered himself into a losing bet.

Defeated, Jaune stared toward the direction where Ruby's emotions lay, ignoring the all powerful ones around him. Partners didn't abandon each other and he's still determined to win this one-sided game of theirs. Hopeless or not. Yet, he knew it's hopeless.

No one's that delusional. Not even the whispers, scratching at the back of his skull, offer up a moot point.

And speaking of whispers, the Arc might as well take the time to figure out what's happening with him. Ruby's intrusion didn't exactly give him a lot of time to figure things out. Heck, he's lucky she didn't see the massive blood stains on the ground, or things would've gotten really awkward. Small mercies.

Kicking his feet on the dirt, Jaune glared at the floor with an emotionless mask. Now that he didn't need to keep the mask up, he preferred to drop it. Kind of hurt to keep his face smiling when the muscles acted against it. His jaw actually ached a bit. Whoever thought smiling could be so painful?

Checking his surroundings with bored eyes, he did a quick sigh before following after Ruby's trail of breadcrumbs, or rose petals. Didn't matter. The way he dragged his feet meant for this to be a slow journey. He had questions. His lack of emotions made him virtually fearless. The unknown needed to be explored. And all his answers lied with the whispers coming out to play.

"If you can hear me, say something."

Silence.

An absence of sound made the forest a loud place. The wind howled in the distance. Leaves rustled on the forest floor. There's telltale of gunshots in the background. A person could get stuck out here with only their thoughts to keep them company. Then, breaking through the imaginary world, that deafening whisper returned. Words were shuffled, their message was unclear, it almost sounded like they're submerged underwater. Occasionally, he could make one out, like he'd been doing all this time, except those times the messages had been clear from the start.

In the end, the sounds weren't really words, but more like a collage of sounds that occasionally create a passable word.

"I guess it's random?" In a way, Jaune did get what he asked for. Just not the way he expected. Then to his everlasting annoyance, the whispers come back to affirm this before slinking back into the puddles. "Gee, thanks! That was really helpful. I sure learned a lot."

Good news, he's not crazy. Bad news, he's not crazy.

The whispers were as real as the bugs crawling on the floor. Judging by the way they stayed at his shadow's side, they're here to stay. Their purpose's unknown. It's as if they're simply along for the ride, being a co-pilot in what he called a life. A _dark passenger_ for lack of a better phrase. Of course he's not going to call it his dark passenger.

That'd just be silly.

"Are you at least on my side? Can you answer me that?" To answer his question, his hunger vanished. Jaune instinctively knew it wasn't forever, but small victories eventually lead up to winning the war. "Still doesn't really answer my question, but I'll take it."

Whelp! Now that he's left with more questions than answers, Jaune picked up the pace to catch up to Rubes. He seriously doubted the whispers were going to be convenient when he wanted them to be, so better to make the best out of a bad situation and complete the initiation. Which also meant he needed to keep up appearances until he figured everything out. So it's back to playing mind games.

Brushing a branch aside, possibly the same one that scarred him earlier, he spotted Ruby's outline farther down the path. Sighing, Jaune for all intents and purpose threw up another smile. The odd sensation of forcing his muscles to retract like that, minus the lack of any emotion, really made the gesture uncomfortable and quite possible scary.

Gosh! He really hoped that wasn't the case.

...

Reaching the end of the forest with her boots leaving behind a trail of dirt and rose petals, Ruby smugly grinned in the direction where she left Jaune behind to _eat her dust_. No one challenged Ruby Rose to a race and hoped to win. That's just plain stupid. Not even her sister Yang would make that bet, and the girl lived for trouble and mayhem. Her dumb dad might humor her, and that made it hard for her to take him seriously, especially since he cheated with using words to discourage her.

Dumb dad and his stupid guilt trips!

In the off distance, she could spot him making his way toward her, grin strong and all. And it's that smile of his that caused her to take a hesitant step back and almost another before she steeled her nerves at the pointless struggle. Pointless or not, though, her instincts tell her to be cautious of that smile of his, no matter how ridiculous the urge felt or how strongly she felt against such a useless and meaningless thought. Because ever since she spotted Jaune those few moments ago, her heart threatened to stop on command. And every once in a while it skipped a beat.

Why it did such things scared her.

Jaune's smile was different. In every possible way it's different, no two ways about it. It's easier and there was this new air of confidence that made her want to be wary of him. Nothing from it stood out, but she couldn't put her finger on it. It just seemed so lifeless. So dull and utterly empty. Like everything inside him had up and died from her carefree friend she had only met yesterday.

Like he was dead inside.

A crazy thought, one that's fueled by nothing, and she shook away the troubling idea before it caused her another negative friend. Monty forbid she got anymore of those.

Seconds later, Jaune reached Ruby with him gasping slightly for air. The action caused the girl to giggle at Jaune's defeated, sweaty face, knowing that he was the _loser_ of their little race. A nice try. She might even give him a pat on the back later for his futile efforts? He did end up making her smile. That's got to count for something.

"What?" he wheezed, standing straighter with his back arched. "Was that? How were you able to run so fast?"

More giggling. "That was my Semblance. I'm a speedster! Speed's my game! And I'm the master!"

"Semblance?" he echoed, catching all his breath. There's pure confusion haunting him. "I still don't know what a Semblance is, Ruby."

Taking a moment to wonder how her partner even got into Beacon without a Semblance, Ruby quickly pointed a finger in the air with the same confidence as a Professor or his own father. He's not sure which comparison bothered him more.

"A Semblance is like a super power you get that kind of responds to your Aura! See!" She moved closer to him in a flash. The rose petals getting trapped in his hair was just a bonus. "My semblance makes me super-fast! No one could catch me! Just try it! I dare you!"

Jaune lazily grabbed her hood, fixing her a leveled glare. "Caught you."

"No!" she yelled at him for missing the point. "Gah! You know what I mean!"

He did and then he didn't it. Was this strange hollow feeling in his chest his Semblance? What about the bone on his neck or his weird ability to feel Ruby's emotions? How about this hunger? Were they all part of his Semblance or was this just his Aura? Better question, who would want this power if this proved to be the case? Unsustainable hunger? Emotionless doll? Outer appearance change? Seemed like a heavy price to pay for a _super power_.

Even so, the concept wasn't lost to Jaune, but the execution left a lot to be desired. "So how do I get my Semblance? Do I just close my eyes and wish for it to happen? Is there like some secret mantra I gotta say?"

Pulling her hood away, she shrugged. "I don't know. Sometimes you get it while you're training, or other times it _just_ happens... are you sure this isn't your Semblance? Because _this_ isn't normal!"

She pointed to his neck and Jaune reached out to touch the bone-plating. "I really don't know. I just had my Aura unlocked before you found me."

Jaune could feel the surprise in Ruby before her eyes even light up. Emotion reading sure had its perks. "Really? You just had your Aura unlocked?" Nodding only made that wad of confusing, conflicted emotions more scattered. "Then maybe this is your Semblance and you just don't know how to use it yet?"

The answer seemed fair, and this whole Aura and Semblance deal was still new to him. He'd take what explanation he could get at this point. Didn't seem like Ruby's willingly to argue about it, anyways. Meek or not, the girl's stubborn to a fault. He didn't need to read her emotions to figure that out.

"Could be." He crossed his arms and sighed distastefully. "It would explain all the weird stuff going on with me."

"Weird stuff? What weird stuff." Ruby couldn't help but ask, taken back. "You're telling me there's even more? What other secrets were you hiding, dear partner of mine?" Jaune smirked slightly, amused at Ruby's conflicting emotions. They put him, well, not in a good mood, he had no such thing anymore, but a better mood. Ruby only got more impatient by his reluctance. "Tell me!"

Definitely pushy.

On the edge of revealing his hidden powers to her, with his tongue clicked with his teeth, that same whisper of darkness from before warned him not to reveal too much. The words were too clear for any chance of mistrust. He quickly thought about ignoring it, but it wouldn't budge, not on this, no matter what meaningless excuse Jaune made for it. And something told the Arc to _really_ listen to the dark whispers this time. They're pushing too hard for anything less.

And perhaps it's for the best. Telling others he could essentially tell how they're feeling, or when they're lying, did have a foreseeable drawback. Future trust would vanish in smoke without a doubt. No one would care to converse him. And each word spoken would be clipped and carefully chosen with a level head. And honestly, that didn't appeal to the apathetic man. Why ruin a good thing over something as useless and trivial as fairness? At least that's what the darkness told him.

So Jaune lied.

He lied without remorse. He told Ruby about his ability to read and feel emotions, but only to a small extent, nothing close to what he _actually_ felt , and he did leave out the little fact he couldn't feel his own or how hollow he felt inside. Nor did he reveal that he enjoyed seeing the light in her eyes die whenever sadness gripped at her. None of it was revealed to her against his weighted judgement. And the dark whispers stop, if only for a brief moment.

Lying by omission never felt so easy. So natural.

Ruby ended up reacting the way Jaune expected her to.

She never missed a beat. "That's... a weird Semblance." Ruby tried to hide some part of her disappointment, but quickly found Jaune forcing a smile on her instead. "Oh... sorry. I already forgot."

Jaune pretended to be offended. Without emotions, faking them was a lot easier than he ever thought possible. Keeping the muscles together was the hard part. And at a base level he felt no shame in pretending, but the second Ruby's hit with guilt, some parts of him both hated and loved that timid expression dwelling inside her. The sensation's too delicious to ignore. He's forced to bite his tongue or risk a groan. Luckily, his Arc pride won over and he quickly snuffed out that delight, poking the small girl on the shoulder in attempt to wash away any trace of grief.

Pity.

"Don't worry about it, Ruby. It's fine— _I'm_ fine." There's still traces of doubt in her. Time to improvise. "Who knows? Maybe I could do some pretty awesome stuff if I practice a little. And besides, I can only feel your emotions randomly." Jaune randomly grinned, mocking in element. "And besides, your face like an open book. I don't need my Semblance to read your emotions."

Ruby nudged him in the shoulder. "You're a jerk!"

" _You're_ a jerk!"

That alone seemed to bring her spirits back up, both to the amusement and disappointment of the harsh whispers of decay and blood floating inside his head. He'd have to find a way to control this urge, because it only seemed to be getting stronger, a fear he couldn't fully feel, but for now he's able to press it down. How long that'd last was hard to say, but Jaune's banking on _not too long_.

"Jerk..." she smiled and Jaune faked his own. He also learned that Ruby had a thing for nudging. Then she's pulling him close to a shoulder-to-shoulder victory pose. "And don't worry, I'll help you! We'll practice together! There's no obstacle Beacon's bestest partners can't overcome!"

The knight's not _too_ sure on how she could help with an emotional based Semblance—if this was his Semblance—but he's not saying _no_ to any sort of help. Not now. Especially not now. On the other hand, he's not saying _yes_. Definitely not saying yes. It's complicated in the cruelest sense of the word. Maybe he'd just stick to maybe.

Peering down at the short girl, Jaune gave it his best smile. She smiled back.

"Thanks, Rubes!" Jaune shrugged his shoulder toward an off-direction where he could feel panic and pure, unrestrained happiness lurking nearby. "Let's go! We need to complete this mission."

She nodded and they're off. And a few minutes into the walk with Ruby had put Jaune's new found line of power into full perspective. And what he learned should scare him, but it didn't.

Not one bit.

All of his emotions—the thing that made him feel normal—no longer seem to exist at a base level. He couldn't feel sadness at the thought of Pyrrha ditching him, nor could he feel a sort of connection and understanding when it came to Ruby's rant about lousy partners. Hell, he'd been forcing a smile each time the moment called for one. In fact! It's the same for all his emotions.

Every last one of them were nothing more than a hollow mask he put on.

The slight fear he _had_ felt earlier looked to have been the last remnants of emotions he had left. For a lack of a better idea, the emotions he lost have appear to be buried underneath others. It's more of a give-and-take system. Where his emotions have been stripped away from his soul, in exchange with the power to feel the emotions of others around him and assess the situation. This made forcing his own emotions a whole lot easier to do. And again, Jaune Arc should be worried, but he's not.

It's an emotionally impossible task for him to worry.

"Hey!" Ruby pointed ahead of them, breaking him from his thoughts. "Look! A cave! Do you think we're supposed to get our mission objective from there? It looks pretty dark."

"Maybe..." he answered honestly, shrugging his shoulders.

That answer alone seemed to be good enough for Ruby, who's already running toward the entrance of the cave in a quick speed of rose petals. One of them landed on Jaune's nose and he coolly blew it away before running after her. A worthless effort as the girl came running out a second later, sliding aggressively beside Jaune with Crescent Rose locked and loaded with a fierce look of determination knitted down on her usually positive face.

Jaune Arc didn't even get a moment to ask _what happened_ before a Grimm like scorpion thrashed out of the cave, looking positively fuming. The monster thrashed wildly against the cave rocks that have fallen on it, shrugging away the rubble with weak effort.

Adding a small glare, Jaune slowly raised his sword up, hating how he couldn't feel anger toward Ruby. On the plus side, no fear! "What did you do? You were only in there for less than a minute."

"Hey!" she huffed, emitting a tiny growl. "Why is it always my fault?" Jaune didn't answer, but he did give her a sideways glare. "Okay! Fine! I might have accidentally pulled its tail too hard... and almost tore it off. In my defense, I didn't know it was its tail! You should've stopped me."

He should honestly feel surprised and a tiny bit irritated with her. Maybe even some impression of tired and distraught. At least anger.

Nothing ever came.

Instead, he waved away the concern; feeling conflicted at the sight of the Death Stalker finally breaking free from the cave collapse. It spotted them huddled away from the entrance, one drenched in fear, and the other in indifference. Immediately focusing its eyes on the girl, it charged at her in a roar of fury, more than prepared to end it, but stopped—without any trace of anger—once the Grimm spotted Jaune protectively guarding alongside the irksome female.

Their eyes meet. Jaune's not too sure what he's supposed to do. Some human part of him told him to flee or fight. Another part of him told him to do nothing and interact. The urges, the hush whispers, and the slow beating of his heart resonating in his ears were all so confusing. And it seemed he's not the only one to be stunned.

The Grimm stopped before taking a hesitant step toward Jaune, acting very childish compared to only seconds ago. Each move's calm and calculated, meant to study the human that stood before it. Although, the Death Stalker appeared to be having problems sensing anything akin to life or emotions that normally attracted its kind.

Nothing came from the human standing before it. His eyes were filled with paralleled darkness. Compared to the other; this creature remained absolutely hollow inside. No fear, no anger, no joy, just nothing. Jaune's simply a hollow shell of nothing. Soulless in every sense of the word. Just like the Grimm standing before him.

A monster.

Feeling some sort of kinship with the monster, Jaune couldn't sense any emotion at all hiding inside. No anger like it had acted out—just like the way he forced himself smiled whenever Ruby talked and joked—or any real semblance of feelings.

There's simply nothing.

The bone attached to his neck, and his chest, felt incredibly warm and funny. That hunger sickening his soul was nowhere to be seen. The Arc could even say he's a little nervous to be glaring at eyes just as dead as his. Not a bad type of nervousness, but like a love struck kind, where there's butterflies fluttering aimlessly in his stomach.

Stepping forward, Jaune gulped with confidence, wanting nothing more than to connect. Everything about this was all still new to him, so the concept of what to do was hopelessly lost. Even when the rational thinking part of his brain told him to be afraid and on prime alert, a more primitive and stronger urge conflicts with that part of his mind and told him to reach out and connect. And eventually that sensation finally captured Jaune's interest, allowing the primitive urge to overcome his rational thoughts for a short period of time.

Burying the blade of Crocea Mors into the dirt, Jaune extended his hand out and slowly walked over and lightly touched the Grimm's skull, ignoring the soft _gasp_ and array of haunting emotions bubbling up behind him. And subtly, ever so subtly, he lowered his hoodie to allow his bone-platted neck to be shown against the high sun, taking solace in the soft growl from the Grimm.

"Aren't you afraid of it?"

Tracing his fingers softly on the bone-plating of the Death Stalker, Jaune hardly spared Ruby a glance over his shoulder, or even an afterthought, feeding into _not_ her curiosity but those tiny bits of fear radiating from her body. And he could feel the Death Stalker react to her fear as well, but he stopped it instinctively with a soft nudge of his palm.

 _Aren't you afraid of it?_

What a silly question to ask.

"Am I supposed to be?"

* * *

 **Update: Edited - 1/9/2018**

 **Word count increase:** 3500


	2. Alizarin

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing of RWBY.

* * *

 **Alizarin**

 **By: Imyoshi**

Life was a beautiful lie.

It's ironic—funny really. Of all he things he'd lost, of everything he was stripped of, humor remained not one of them. Because Jaune wanted nothing more than to laugh at Ruby's skepticism and fear. Not smile. Not cry. Not wail. But laugh. He wanted to chuckle at her innocence. Laugh until his sides hurt, and then some.

The idea didn't bring him joy, no carnal delight, but a cruel sense of fulfillment. Comedy really did have a thin line between humor, pain, laughter, hurt, and tragedy. Jaune's just now seeing said line. And all it would take to muddle up the grains was an easy sweep of the proverbial sand. Gone! Just like that. And no one would be the wiser.

In the very end, he held it all in. Life's easy like that. Emotions no longer shackled his wrist together like a slave. He's a free man. Free to choose his own path. Free to believe in _nothing_.

Calming the Grimm down with a pat to the exoskeleton, Jaune sighed and waited for Ruby to act. Her emotions were like a lighthouse in the darkness of his mind. Of course he could feel her internal struggle. What sane person wouldn't react to this display? Everyone just had a different way of coping. Be it fight or flee was all up to them.

Even the Arc had no clue to Ruby's personal preference. So he waited. Waited for her to either attack or run. And with her Semblance and skill, either one of those options were viable.

Her emotions were too scattered for him to breakdown.

Ruby Rose's torn inside. Years of honed fighting instincts told her to push Jaune out of the way and unleash all Crescent Rose's Dust rounds upon the Death Stalker. Another prehistoric instinct silently told her to fire at both of them, to hell with the consequences. This was her life on the line. Fight and survive! And her internal struggle might as well been trying to hide a fire in the dark from Jaune and the Grimm.

Both of which slide their eyes toward her, Jaune's obscured due to his position. He's still waiting on her answer and the Death Stalker's growing restless under her furry of fear and anticipation. Plus, the scorpion might still be ticked for her pulling it's stinger off, and avoiding a fight seemed so much better than engaging in one.

"Well?" Patience definitely was a virtue.

She remained quiet, obviously confused and unable to properly cope. The whispers return to warn him, warn the Arc to control the situation before the control's lost to him. And he found no reason to fight back, wishing he could remain to enjoy her fear, but knowing fully well it could attract more unwanted attention and endanger his life. Not everything was reasonable.

He liked breathing.

Lightly patting the Death Stalker once more, he suddenly found the Grimm's tale lowered to his eye level and found part of its stinger torn off, hanging off to the side. Looked to him that Ruby might have also over exaggerated her part of the tale and gave him a golden ticket out of this mess. At least that's partially what the strange urges told him. Crazy as it sounded, and Jaune Arc knew it sounded completely ridiculous.

Reaching out toward the stinger, and resting his hand on the Death Stalker's skull to fight off Ruby's increase of dreaded emotions, Jaune lightly fixed the stinger back into place with help of the Grimm's blacken fur to tie it down and some not so useless sewing lessons her overprotective mother crammed into him. An understanding passed between the two when he's finished and he almost smiled, instead of choosing to hide back into the darkness of his hoodie.

Time would be required for the healing process to take place, but if the Death Stalker avoided confrontation, then eventually the wound would heal. That much the urges told him, dying down just long enough for Jaune to breathe again, even if Ruby's emotions were still scattered and causing him all sorts of headaches. He could almost cut the fear with Crocea Mors.

Letting go of the stinger, the Grimm gave Jaune one more look over, lacking emotion just like him, before growling deeply at Ruby and leaving back to find a new cave to settle in. And Jaune's not going to lie, he's really going to miss the creature. The bond he felt between him and it went deeper than and Ruby and his, that's for sure.

Stepping back, Jaune kept watch until the Grimm disappeared into the woods. He sighed emptily when it finally vanished from his line of sight. That feeling of hunger had slowly returned. The warmth from his boney neck was gone. And he's feeling lost and alone again.

Grabbing Crocea Mors, Jaune pulled the sword out of the dirt, throwing the blade over his shoulder. He never made it past that part since Ruby's appearing in front of him, arms up in the air, and disbelief hard to ignore. Like really, _really_ hard to ignore.

"Jaune! How the heck did you do that?" Well, he's not alone at least.

But he's still very much lost. "Ask me again when I figure out."

"I'm serious!" she growled just like the Death Stalker, only more adorable and lacking both the fire and raw physical strength. Someone should take a picture. "No one's gonna believe that just happened."

Throwing in a grin, he peered toward where an array of emotions were centering on. "I don't even believe it."

Ruby kept shaking her arms wildly in the air, like that'd solve all of life's greatest problems. Rage was not a particular emotion he could amply enjoy. Not to a full extent where depression and sadness easily filled more of the void. Maybe he picked the wrong emotion to mirror. Grinning only seemed to be causing greater complications. So much for smiles fixing everything.

"Jaune!"

"Would you calm down?" No such luck, so he pointed toward the buildup of emotions. "C'mon, I'm sensing more people that way. Maybe we'll run into someone you know or something. How does that sound?"

She didn't move from her spot. Why did he honestly expect different? "No! I need answers! What were you doing back there? How did you make that Grimm go away? People don't just do that! Talking to a Grimm isn't exactly normal!"

Normal? What did she know about normal? Normal up and died a mile back. They're in abnormal land. What was even _normal_? Did anyone really know? Still, she's waiting, and Ruby's emotions speak of a rather impatient girl. Must be anxiety problems? Didn't matter. He could play psychoanalysis with Ruby's lack of confidence later. Now he needed to calm her down and get her off his back.

Frowning with a tight lip, Jaune thought of what to say next. He needed a lie, or so the whispers told him. Something to keep Ruby's mouth shut and pacify her troublesome curiosity. His constant hunger wasn't making it any easier to solve. Quite the opposite in fact. And the urges refuse to relieve him of his gluttony.

Bastards.

Reading her emotions, Jaune blinked in inspiration. Emotions! That's it. Now he knew what to say his partner. A simple lie about his fake Semblance should quell her doubts and instill trust into him. Even the dark whispers agree with him, hiding his hunger so he could focus on the lie and nothing else.

Trying to appear awkward, Jaune laughed with a timid smile, even going so far as to rub his neck to really sell it. "Fine... but just hear me out. I know this might sound weird, but you remember how my Semblance was to feel emotions?" He waited for no nod. "Well, I kinda of, sort of, made the Grimm less hostile. I'm not sure how it works, but I managed to do it. Weird, huh?"

The pause was a beat too long for his nerves. However, based on the way her emotions began to settle, he figured he won her over. Even more so when happiness became the dominant feeling. Then she's jumping up and down in joy, and, well, it's too scripted from there.

"That's so amazing! I told ya that your Semblance would come in handy." She said no such thing. She's more of a liar than he was. "But to make Grimm be all nice and junk! Imagine how helpful that can be? That's like having a cheat code, but for life!"

Cheat code? What was this? An action role-playing game? Ruby seriously needed to lay off the video games. Those things would rot a person's mind from the inside out. And he preferred to have a partner with some brain cells.

Acting modest, Jaune's laughter got weaker. "That's one way of putting it. But I wouldn't go as far as to call it a cheat code. Maybe like a power-up, if anything."

"Can you do it again?" It's an honest question that deserved an honest answer.

But Jaune's anything but honest. "It was kind of a fluke. I'm not even sure how I did it the first time."

"Then you'll just have to practice some more!"

Her optimism's loud and appreciated, but ill-placed. And yet he still must smile for her. "Maybe later, but let's go already. I sense a few emotions that way. Maybe we'll run into other people?"

His smile hurt. He must be trying too hard since Ruby's feeling conflicted by it. Dummy kept forgetting about his ability to read emotions. What's the point of hiding her feelings around him? Then again, she probably thought he couldn't sense her doubts right now.

Fair enough.

Too bad he couldn't read her mind, that'd be something. Because her conflicting emotions would make for an interesting read. He wondered what's running through that adorable head of hers.

Ruby had a nervous habit of chewing on her lip when she's flustered.

At the idea of running into someone she might know, she stopped her flailing to think about her older sister. She would like nothing more than to run into Yang and console to her. First her mishap with Weiss weighed heavily in her heart, and then there's Jaune, her newest partner in crime. She's not a hundred percent sure if it's her or not, but every time she saw that smile of his, her trained instincts just screamed out _fake_!

Shivers would traveled down her spine just from the sight of it. And not in the good way like a cold glass of milk and warm cookies. But in a bad way like whenever her dad caught her with her hand in the cookie jar. Which only confused her to no ends since she met Jaune before, and at the time she felt comfortable around him. Yet, her training refused to back down. The feeling in her gut didn't settle, even when Jaune sheathed away his sword.

Weaponless or not, his smile could break glass.

Then again, it could all just be in her head. Maybe he's just nervous? Yea! That had to be it. He's just a nervous silly buddy. Totally made sense!

"Are we going or not?" Jaune asked, smile gone and voice tone flat. "They're getting farther away."

Maybe _she_ was the one who needed to lie down a bit?

Breathing in quickly, Ruby suddenly zoomed to Jaune, hiding her concern behind a more natural smile. "Okay!" She's jabbing a finger to his chest, barely missing the rate of his irregular heart. "But we're not done with this! We're going to train and make your Semblance like a million times better! Then we're going to become the bestest partners in Beacon, right?"

"Still not a word."

"Right?!" she affirmed with thicker resolve.

Jaune sighed. "Yeah, yeah, bestest partners at Beacon. Gotcha! Don't worry, I'm on it."

She pouted, getting a sense of anger in her thoughts. Jaune felt it before it came. He still couldn't dodge her poke of doom. Poor, poor shoulder. "How does your Semblance work, anyways? Do emotions have a taste or something? And how did you make it work on that Grimm?"

Her bestest partner thought about it, casting an off glance. "I don't really know how to explain it. I can just tell which emotions you're stirring up underneath all that pep—sometimes!" Jaune added quickly. "It comes and goes. I guess it comes with the power. And the Grimm thing? Forget about me trying to explain how that works, because I'm still trying to work out the kinks myself." He could tell she's not happy. "I'm telling you the truth, Rubes." Honestly, he was. Couldn't she tell he's just as lost as she was? Even more so than her. "Something just drove me to help that poor Grimm out. Not everything needs to be solved by violence."

Conflicted, she put away Crescent Rose. She had the audacity to put her tiny hands on her hips. "You're Semblance doesn't make much sense to me. It's just so... just so weird!"

"Yea... well!" Jaune lowered his hood, allowing the bone fragments to shine bright in the sunlight. "Join the club, Crater Face. I'm the president and the name's Jaune Arc."

...

Finding the influx of emotions wasn't too hard. Like following a trail of passionate breadcrumbs, eventually there's an end to sight. For Jaune and Ruby, that end happened to be an ancient podium housing chess pieces, which also attracted both Ruby's sister and some girl whose feelings stayed relatively hidden both on the outside and inside.

Jaune could tell he's going to like and despise her.

"Yang!"

Ruby's off to tackle her sister in a hug he's all too familiar with, leaving Jaune alone with the raven haired girl. They're awkward in their silence, holding back the choice to speak first. It's interesting for the Arc since her emotions began to surface more with each passing second. They're cautious and reserved, not trusting him in the slightest. The whispers grumble in appreciation, but they burn in hunger as well. It's getting rather difficult for Jaune to focus his mind on other things outside of satisfying a taste he didn't have the right word to describe, and a partner like Ruby. Both of which take too much time to balance. And now he had his whispers telling him to either make this girl an ally, or to keep her at arm's length.

Sadly, he'd never been one to reject people.

"So..." he said offhandedly, grabbing a Knight chess piece from off the podium. He twirled it around his fingers, hoping to look cool. "Come here often?"

She's unimpressed by his spinning skills. Her voice just oozed like a flat-line. "If by often, you mean never? Then yes. This is the place where I come to get away from it all."

He enjoyed her company already. "Jaune Arc at your service. And you are?"

Her eyes glared into his darken soul. "Blake Belladonna."

She moved past him to choose the Rook chess piece, keeping her emotionless mask and emotions tightly controlled. Her glare held neither bite nor sentiment, but contained a well-mannered temper. Jaune could already tell he's going to like her based on the empty sensation that overcame him and her quick, witty remark.

Throwing her a grin, Jaune bumped her shoulder in an act of foolery. "Blake, huh? That's a nice name. It rolls off the tongue! It's zesty and mysterious." Even she couldn't hide the small bout of contentment bubbling up inside her. Those emotions were left bare for the Arc to sense. "So? How are things?"

"Fine." Blake glared over to the side, unable to hide her annoyance. "I can see your partner's just as over energetic as mine." She pointed over to the two passionate sisters, placing the Rook away for safe keeping, baring the tiniest of feeling. "This is going to be fun."

Her sarcasm made the cold whispers chuckle humorlessly, fascinated by her dry wit and mismatched emotions. Like him—to a very small extent—she's dead inside. Somewhere down along the lines, Blake here must've buried part of her soul and left it behind. Unlike him, she didn't need to fake her acute curiosity when it came to him hiding part of his face beneath his hood.

Yet, she didn't ask about it and Jaune had no intention in telling. All of his new found urges demand he remain hidden for his own benefit. Not theirs, but his. Already telling Ruby had pushed the limit to a near breaking point and the outcome had already landed the Arc in hot water with the Death Stalker problem. Not to mention the black hole in his stomach was growing larger by the second.

He's ravenous.

Forcing a smile, Jaune looked out toward the edge of the woods where another pair of emotions was creeping up on them. "You're telling me. I just want to finish this and relax. Oh, and those two are sisters by the way. I met them during our first day here, and yes, I know they can be a bit... tiresome. So I can't wait to get out of here and sleep some."

Blake actually released more of her curiosity. "You don't want to stay and fight some more?" Traces of anger rise out of her. "My partner does. Yang wants to bash a few skulls. I wouldn't mind such an activity, but only if we're forced to. I don't enjoy looking for trouble."

"Nah! We just need to complete the mission and get out of here. There's no point in staying. And... uh?" A new eerie feeling overcame him at the direction of the new emotions, cutting the conversation dangerously short. "Would you please excuse me? There's something heading our way."

Pointing toward the woods, a Major Ursa thrashed out a moment later, destroying poor, defenseless trees in a last act of defiance before falling to the forces of gravity. Everyone's interest was captured by the stunt, more especially when a newcomer and her partner walk out from behind, one out-of-breath and the other riding the tired bear monstrosity to the point of exhaustion.

Unable to hear what they're talking about, Jaune focused solely on approaching the downed Grimm. The moment he caught its appearance, his attention had been centered on it and on it alone. Just like the Death Stalker, his boney structure warmed to the sight of such a monster and his appetite momentarily derailed. However, he's pulled away from his target when a bouncing girl jumped off the Grimm's back and right in front of him. Arms up in the air, her pearly white smile confused him.

This was normally part he where he smiled.

Except he's too broken from the onslaught of happy-go-lucky emotions beating down on him. If Jaune thought Ruby's emotions were heavy, then this girl's feelings were as dense as a star. She's full of playful, excited, energetic feelings. Jaune would say she's overloaded with feeling, to the point he's slightly suffocating under the emotion. The guy, on the other hand, was more loose and controlled, like Blake, but Jaune could sense heavy amounts of frustration and sleepiness lurking underneath that tired expression of his. Hell! He didn't even need to read his emotions to get that much. Just looking at the guy screamed polar opposite.

She slid into his personal space, smile nauseously bright. "Have we met? I don't think we've met! Hiya! I'm Nora Valkyrie! Oh! You're wearing a hood? I like it! It makes you look mysterious!" She's shaking his hand up and down like a machine. "So what's your name?"

Before Jaune could answer, the other one's standing behind her, tone exhausted and flat. "Nora."

"Yes, Ren?" Jaune almost raised a brow from the unrivaled love he felt coming from Nora.

It's the worst tasting emotion of them all.

"Maybe you should stop shaking his hand so hard, you might dislocate it." Jaune could tell he's going to like Ren's common sense. The whispers agreed with him. So when Nora stopped shaking his hand so hard, Ren only nodded for his benefit. "Sorry about that. Nora can get rather energetic when meeting new people."

Tell him about it. "That's no problem."

"See Ren!" Nora argued, unable to hide her love from Jaune's senses. "He's fine, fuddy-duddy! You worry over nothing! He's—he's? Uh? What's your name again?"

Fighting the urge to spit the taste of love out of his mouth, Jaune fake-smiled for their benefit. "I'm Jaune Arc!" His smile must've looked bad because Nora's a little apprehensive around him now, but Ren's full of understanding and acceptance. "So... friends?"

Whelp, that won Nora back.

She's crushing them both in a three person hug. "Awesome! Look Ren, more friends! Oh! This is Ren by the way! And you know who I am!" How could he not? "So how's it going? Killed any good Grimm yet?"

Jaune paused, replaying her words once over. Good Grimm? That's an oxymoron if he'd ever heard one. Obviously she meant if he's killed any powerful Grimm, but just hearing the words made him stop for the briefest of seconds. But she's in luck, he could be truthful with his claim.

Jaune scratched his face, mixing in an innocent smile. "Nope... just lucky, I guess."

Nora frowned, pouting like a child. "More like unlucky! How are you supposed to let your wild side out if there's no Grimm to kill? You must be going mad!"

"No." Jaune said. "I'm pretty sane."

"Sane?!" She zoomed up to him, invading his personal bubble with one eye closed. Nora leaned up to Jaune. "Are you sure you're okay?"

Before he's forced to confront the enigma, the guy named Ren pulled her away from him, sighing with a practice ease. "Nora, let me handle this." Ren extended a hand out for Jaune to shake. The Arc accepted the bait. "It's a pleasure to meet you. How's hunting for the Relics going?"

If Jaune thought Blake was reserved, then Ren's a steel trap. For the life of him, he couldn't get a good reading on his emotions. Either the Lie's emotionless, or his mind's impenetrable to his emotion sensing abilities? Almost like he controlled a power to hide from him in plain sight. But such things sound improbable.

Still, his whispers urged him to not rule it out. If that's even remotely feasible, then Ren could become a likely threat in the future. A threat to what, however, was up in the air. Yet it didn't matter, Jaune just knew he didn't like being unable to sense Ren's emotions, it left a bitter taste in his mouth that's really hard to swallow. But for now he'd play his part, acting out the whisper's orders to remain normal, even if acting out the right emotion would rely more on personal experience if anything.

"The Relics?" Jaune answered, throwing a thumb back over his shoulder. "You'll find them over—?"

Nora ran past Jaune, spinning him in place for Ren to catch. "Relics!"

"There..." Jaune lamely finished, still held up by Ren. He looked up to Ren's piercing pink eyes. "Is she always like that?"

"More or less."

He accepted the answer with some grace, leaving Ren's hold without embarrassment. That emotion's dead. "Ah. I guess I'll have to get used to that."

The paradox smiled, timid and reserved. "I wish you all the luck. Now, if you would excuse me, I need to go catch up with Nora. It was nice meeting you, Jaune. Perhaps our paths will cross again."

"I already sealed my Fate when I offered to be friends." Ren said nothing and ran off to catch up to Nora. Jaune just smiled and waved, waiting for the perfect moment to strike and approach the downed Grimm. "Just smile and wave, Jaune. Just smile and wave."

Laughing for the sake of laughing, Jaune stopped the moment Nora swiped her Relic, dancing like lunatic she was. He used that moment to break away, using her distraction and random emotions to his advantage. A quick peek over his shoulder revealed that Ruby's still busy bonding with her sister, effectively forgetting he even existed for the time being.

Perfect.

Not waiting on anyone to comment, Jaune moved forward while the other Huntsmen-in-Training distracted themselves. Deep instincts command him to stand before the fallen Grimm, reach out like before. The difference between then and now was Ruby's busy talking nonsense with a deviant and emotional blond. And like before, a kinship of sorts was established when he stood before it. Jaune even almost lowered his hood to greet the beast. Then, the kinship turned to nothing. Absolutely nothing.

A hunger like no other beckoned at his sense of humanity from out of the shadows.

Ignoring everyone behind him, except for the inescapable _Nora_ and her grand entrance, Jaune kneeled down to level with the dying Grimm and lowered his hood. He stabbed Crocea Mors into the dirt, finding the beast's impending death alluring and intoxicating to a sick height of perversion. Blood ran faster between his muscles, and the unnatural beating of his heart rang loudly in his ears. Then the dark urges return, stronger than ever. Whispering words of encouragement between all things dark and deceitfully deviant, almost arduous on his fragile mind.

Demanding he reach out and consume the monster. Literally, the whispers told Jaune Arc to devour the Grimm's power, to inhale the fragments so the power's naught wasted into useless dust.

A laughable and insane idea, almost to the point he got up and left. But, as the Grimm turned to ash, he'd stealthily drawn toward the sight and reached into the dark void before logic and reason pull him back to sanity. And the monster's ashes hovered close to Jaune's palm before shooting forward toward his boney appendages in a speed he's given no time to react.

Lack of emotions prevented him from feeling fear—the whispers play a part as well—and all the ashes were absorbed into his body with no one noticing. An absence of confusion pacified his reasoning. Then the Grimm's gone and a loud _thump_ vibrated strongly in Jaune's chest, numbing everyone around him and everything else except for the hollow sensation dwelling deep in his chest.

That feeling seemed to have grown stronger.

Hiding back in the confines of his hood, Jaune pulled Crocea Mors out from the dirt, oddly curious to what might've happened. Light twist and turns of the blade reveal nothing done to the boney limb on his neck, yet, the cut from before had disappeared. A dark shade of coal encased his iris for the shyest of seconds before its gone, leaving no trace behind.

Power.

That sole word popped randomly, clear as day and not indistinguishable compared to most of the dark murmurs. It's a constant, never-ending serenade, informing Jaune of something he couldn't fully grasp the meaning to. Then the reason behind the undertones become clear as he took an experimental swing of his sword, finding the action underhandedly different.

Much sharper, plus with some bits of new strength, and his swing had a greater force behind it. His grip proved to be tighter, and the blade no longer felt as heavy in his hand nor did the shield.

"I'm stronger?" That seemed to be the answer because the whispers retreat back to the recesses of his mind, temporarily halting their ominous humming. "This is... different. But I think I like it. No, I definitely like it."

Happiness and panic steal away his attention—it's a cornucopia of emotions—and Jaune had to forget about his discovery for another time and sigh with absolute distaste. Apparently, a group of people couldn't stay composed for two seconds. Partially he blamed himself, more out of common etiquette so he's not left out of the group and to cover all his bases. But really, the Arc should've expected nothing less from people that were supposed to be his peers.

He turned around to be met with Ruby, who's running all over the place. Mostly she's pointing at the giant bird in the sky, a flying Grimm. The running was amusing—her panic was delicious—and she slid up to him the moment they made eye contact.

"Jaune! Quick! Get ready! There's a Nevermore flying over our heads!"

He did nothing, basking in the panic and adrenaline of masked fear. Nothing could ever compare to the sensation of feeding off their misery, yet, that muted hunger in his soul was only partially filled. Despair's good and all, but he needed a stronger feeling to nourish off of and close that emptiness inside his irregular heart. Even Ruby's innocent panic only filled so much.

Eventually reaching a limit to satisfy his endless fill, common sense and basic instinct to survive kicked in. With a quick sheathing of his sword, Jaune nodded and he promptly turned around toward Beacon Academy, grasping tightly onto the knight chess piece.

Ruby's instantly in front of him on his second step. "Uh... excuse me? Where are you going?"

He pointed toward Beacon, giving her an expression akin to a glare for her foolish heroic emotions. "To Beacon. We're done here. We got our piece. Mission complete."

"But what about the giant Grimm in the sky?"

He placed his sword and shield onto his back, uncaring. "What about it? It's not bothering us. It's bothering them, yes, but that's because I can see from right here that Weiss is holding onto its claw. Obviously, Pyrrha and Weiss must've done something to anger it." The glare became real. "Like _someone_ I know. Plus, why do you care? I thought you hated _stupid_ Weiss."

Guilt didn't work on him, not anymore, but Ruby's an emotional sponge. "I know, but they might need our help to fight it!"

The whispers return from their slumber, enforcing their host to make the girl listen to reason. No point in risking the safety of their lives for other people's imprudence. Believe him, Jaune's trying. Perhaps he could work off a different angle, play the emotional strings attached to Ruby's line of thinking when he brought up Weiss's name. Nothing like pesky guilt was around to hold him back.

"If you want to go help the person who ditched you, go right ahead. I'm completing the mission. Try not to hurt yourself." A few steps later and the emotional waves hit him like a punch to the gut. Desire settled deep in his partner's soul, tearing her apart in all possible directions. Maybe some unruly manipulation was in order. "Look, if Weiss thinks she's too good to be your partner, then let her risk her life. You gave her a chance and she literally walked away from it. Imagine what would've happened if a horde of Grimm came out of nowhere after that? Weiss didn't even care for your safety, so why bother?"

There. Powerful points have been made, plus some added suppressed trauma never hurt to sweeten the tooth decay.

"Don't you care what might happen to them?"

Honestly, he would rather watch paint dry. A terrible, cynical thought, one that made stomachs churn and people gasp randomly, but also one that held a greater meaning in the long run. Emotions clouded the judgment. Clouded judgment led to disastrous outcomes such as a mission failure, or worse, death.

So in layman's terms. "I care what happens to you. You're my partner, Ruby. I don't want you risking your life when you don't have to. Especially for someone who's only treated you like dirt from the moment you met her and had no problem turning their back on you. Why help someone who won't a finger to help you?"

He could tell she's not totally convinced. "What about Pyrrha?"

Fake grin. "I seem to recall she's won some fancy tournament four times in a row. She'd be fine. It's Ice Queen who might need some help. But that's not _our_ problem. Besides, they have everyone else backing them up. Blake said Yang's been itching for a fight. Why take that away from her? They don't need us."

Ruby squirmed under his impeccable knowledge. "I don't know... it sounds wrong."

His eye roll was too powerful to stop. "I thought you wanted to be the _bestest_ partners that Beacon's ever seen? Beating the record would make us look the best. And honestly, if they need help to take care of _one_ Grimm, when it's six versus one, then they don't deserve to be here."

Even if bestest wasn't a word, it still had one hell of an impact on Ruby. "Promise me then. Promise we we'll be the bestest partners ever."

Jaune blinked. A promise? He didn't expect such a request, but if it'd get them out of here. "Fine. I promise on the name of the Arc that we'll become the bestest partners in Beacon. You have my word."

Her struggled died slowly, both a positive and a negative for the Arc. On one hand, he much rather survive this day and not lose his partner and first friend, even if the thought of Ruby dying by his feet did nothing for his conscious, he still needed her alive. And on the other, feeling Ruby fight her emotions internally did delicious things for his monstrous appetite hiding deep inside. So it's a win-win.

Finally she accepted his inescapable logic. "Fine."

He almost wanted to smirk, almost. Instead, Jaune settled on strengthening his fake grin, feeling her struggle still very much alive, only repressed. "Good! Now! Off to Beacon—!"

She's in his face before he could blink. "But next time we help people because that's what heroes do! This is just a onetime deal! Got it? I just really want to beat Weiss and show her I'm not useless!"

Jaune grinned, enjoying Ruby's jealously and wrath. It's not as prominent as sadness or grief, but it tasted good nonetheless. Even the whisper enjoyed the sensation, but he's on a strict schedule.

Raising his hands up, the smile faltered beneath her adorable fury. "Fine, fine. Next time, I promise. Gosh, what's with you and the promises. You're really tying my hands together here."

Happiness bubbles back up from the abyss of her soul and Jaune's practically crushed underneath the onslaught both figuratively and literally as she pulled him by the back of his hood toward Beacon. Fighting went on in the background, feathers crash down onto the earth and a blitzkrieg decimated the land, but Jaune's mind was more focused on the dark whispers clouding his thoughts than anything else.

...

Turned out arriving at Beacon an hour into the initiation was a new record. Most peopled tended to get themselves into trouble and lost while setting out on the missions. Falling prey to pity distractions and needing to fill their desire of empty heroism to appear impressive and fill the thing they call their egos and dreams.

Idiotic fools.

Every second Jaune's starting to see his lack of emotions a positive thing. Minus the fact he couldn't be happy for breaking the past record or this irrational hunger that threatened to forever follow him. Also feeling everyone else's emotions were starting to put a light strain on him. A weak strain, but both his mind and the urges tell him overtime the sensation would become unbearable until he got a release.

A release from what or how to achieve this, the whispers fail to reveal.

At least he could tell Professor Goodwitch was impressed when both he and Ruby arrived back at Beacon in record time. Apparently, she always wanted a student who stuck to the mission and did everything by the book. Ozpin's a different story entirely. He may have been able to hide his disappointment from Ruby, but not him. Jaune sensed it. He sensed it as clear as day. But did it matter to him?

Not at all.

Feeding off Ruby's concern for her sister, Jaune sat patiently back in the lounge, watching the little reaper pace back and forth on the nice carpet. He wanted to roll his eyes at her silliness. Didn't she trust her sister and the _five_ others to take on one bird? Couldn't she be a little bit more optimistic? And that's coming from an apathetic guy.

Getting his fill of negative emotions, he sensed more people approaching and looked over his shoulder to see all said five people returning from their brawl, all dirty and covered in scratches. A few limped from their spots. And Ruby still hadn't notice their arrival yet, too concerned for their safety.

Jaune needed a new word for irony.

Finding the scene too interesting to interrupt, Jaune propped his head onto his wrist, allowing the urges to numb out the mix variety of emotions littering the air. Shadowed eyes peer deeply as Yang sneaked up behind her sister, grabbing the miserable girl in a tight, loving headlock. And his partner flailed like a waterless fish from the preemptive strike.

"Gah!"

Snickering followed right after. "There you are! Where'd you head off to earlier, Rubes? You missed all the action! Blakey here thought of a totally awesome plan to sabotage the Grimm's wings and we destroyed the Grimm when it crashed! You should've been there!"

Sensing the various mixed relief and embarrassment Yang was causing for Ruby, plus all the other emotions clouding up the room, Jaune practically missed the conflicted feelings directed at him from behind his shoulder. He's only distracted when she overshadowed him.

"Hello..." Pyrrha slowly said, tapping him on the shoulder. "Have we met?"

Fascinating, simply fascinating. "First Ruby and now you. Does having my hood up really make me look that different, Pyrrha?"

Lowering his hood for his messy hair to pop out, but not enough for the bone-plating to be plainly obvious, Jaune grinned falsely at the pumpkin girl, eyes dead and dull, missing the once bright shine they once had before hiding back in the shadows.

Strangely, she's at a loss for words, tremendously caught off-guard. Nothing he didn't expect. Did he care? Nope would be the correct answer. Should he care? Yes would also be the correct answer. Under normal circumstances, he shouldn't be grinning like a total fool to her after she ditched him. But Jaune Arc couldn't find it in him to care and her heavily laced guilt was very much welcomed. Odd, yet welcomed.

Instantly, she's gripping him by the forearm, breaking apart the peaceful setup he once had, panicky and damn near hysterical to a fault. Shaking seemed to be a common occurrence because she's relentless at it, never ending or tiring until Jaune grabbed her by the wrist, weirdly interested in the turnabout of emotions she's displaying for him to see and feel.

He feasted on her anxiety.

"You're supposed to be dead! I saw you die!" A strong urge overcame Jaune, raising his eyebrow up on force of habit. _That_ explained the heavy guilt and light trickles of tears building up in her eyes. "... You shouldn't be here. I saw you die."

Standing up, he couldn't help but ask. "What? What do you mean you saw me die? I'm standing right here, very much alive."

True be told, he's not too sure if he's alive or stuck in a place in-between. The urges certainly remained mute when he brought it up. Almost like if they had no clue as well. A little disheartening to consider, but what's done was done.

Pyrrha couldn't control herself, she's hysterical. "It's exactly what I mean! I. Saw. You. Die." Her emotions wither away, leaving a husk behind. "When that Beowolf tore apart your throat, I saw the life drain away from your eyes."

Jaune raised his brow slightly up. So a Beowolf did attack his neck? It wasn't some illusion his mind compensated for? Mystery solved! And she's right. He did die. Just not in the way she's thinking. More of an inner self type of death, his emotions took the fall over him. A trade he had no say in.

Still, this meant Pyrrha hadn't ditched him and just wandered aimlessly after watching her partner succumb to Death's embrace, most likely in search of a new partner. This meant he couldn't fault her. Not like he was, but now it's definitely an option he could erase. Besides, he might've done something completely different, but the roles were more or less the same.

Waving his hand, he forced his teeth to show. "Well, obviously that's not true. I'm standing right here! Right in front of you! Totally fine, see?"

She's not entirely convinced by his words. He didn't need to sense her emotions to know that. Couldn't say that he blamed her. He would be on edge too if something like this occurred to him in the span of less than half a day. And before he knew it, she's reaching out to touch his neck and test the limits of reality, boundaries completely gone.

Pushing her hand away before she could reach, Jaune changed from happy to sympathetic on a dime. Appealing to both his dark whispers to keep her away and to a troubled friend. "I'm fine, Pyrrha. Trust me. I'm fine. My Aura must've healed me just on time! You're right, this stuff does work."

The contentment Pyrrha felt could rival the sun.

It's too overly sweet and nauseating for his taste, Jaune wished nothing more for her bouts of shame to condense and fill the air again. Luck's not on his side, and he's stuck being in a room filled with teenagers positively chipper to a fault, him excluded.

"I'm so happy..." Pyrrha sighed, looking at him with renewed hope. She moved an experimental step closer, eyes brighter. "Maybe we can still be—?"

Like a ball of jealous fury, Ruby's instantly between them, pushing them apart while pressing and wrapping her arms around Jaune's arm. "Back off! You had your chance! You left him and now he's my partner now! Tough luck!"

Pyrrha peered to Jaune for anything. She's met with a lost shrug. "She's right."

Bitterly torn inside, the whispers feast on the purest form of remorse thus far while partaking in Ruby's jealously. Jaune's hero pride tried to wipe away the sensation, fighting his dark whispers every step of the way. A valiant effort that paid off in the saddest of ways, robbing away his meal, and leaving him with nothing but an inescapable hollow feeling inside the center of his chest that wanted more.

But how long could the Arc pride fight back a losing battle?

The bright light dulled immensely from Pyrrha's eyes. "I didn't mean to abandon you..."

"I know you didn't mean too." He truly did. Her emotions practically spelled out remorse and shame. Not even a clueless person could miss those signs. "I'm not mad, but it is too late. I'm sorry."

He didn't care.

Another emotionally impossible task he couldn't accomplish.

Sensing her before she could so much as grab him, Jaune prepared himself for Yang's approached. She's like a star, emotions bright and impossible to miss, and before long Yang's adding her own greedy hug to Jaune's other arm, missing the cast of his shadow to reflect on Ruby's puffed and blood stained cheeks. Her ample breasts were pressed tightly on his forearm for an effort on her part, that much the Arc knew by the way she's playing off her emotions. Seduction with sufficient loads of mockery made the gesture harmless but not any less enjoyable.

Hormones were thy enemy.

"A little possessive, aren't we, Ruby?" Waves of depression and insecurity wash over Jaune, deceptively; Ruby had a few abandonment issues it would seem. Yang grinned up at him, standing to full height, yet not letting go his trapped hand. "Jaune, was it? So you're Ruby's partner?"

Pressing her body snuggly was hard to miss and Ruby's drenching him in buckets of anxiety. She's fishing for a reaction. Safe to say, Yang Xiao Long was going to be sorely disappointed. Reactions were a fool's game. Only a weaker man would fold.

Jaune Arc's not sure whether he craved to be a weaker man.

Pulling away and freeing his arm, Jaune fixed Yang a steady glare, lacking in bite that still found a way to get the message across. Playing around in the acts of desire and ridicule would leave her nothing but a flawless defeat in her wake. Even if the dark whispers did commend her for her courageous, yet fruitless endeavor.

"Yup!" he answered, feeling Ruby's relax her hold on his arm. "We're going to make everyone else here eat our dust! Right, Ruby?!"

Passion overcame his partner, draining away all her negative emotions. "Right! Just watch! Beacon's bestest partners right here!"

Jaune unquestionably wasn't ready for Yang's mood to change erogenous at the second he denied her pseudo advances. She's not the only one who could fake emotions, thank you very much. But this was different. All the mockery vanished, leaving an interesting predator like gleam in the blonde's lavender eyes. Like a Leo stalking its prey.

She sucker punched him in the arm that didn't hurt as much as he thought it would. "Oh, I can't wait to see how you two turn out, especially you, Jaune."

Yang's giving him another experimental hit before running off to torment some other poor unsuspecting soul, not even allowing the Arc a chance to rebuttal. "That makes two of us."

"What was that, Jaune?" Ruby asked, finally releasing her hold.

Grinning for her benefit, he waved off her concern. "Nothing, Ruby, nothing. Why don't we get some snacks? I'm starving!" In more ways than one.

"Okay!" and she'd already forgotten everything that'd happened. "Can we have cookies?!" She asked like he's given a choice. Jaune felt her stubborn resolve iron herself up, leaving no chance for a no. No chance whatsoever.

"I don't see why not?"

Before Ruby could push him excitingly toward Beacon's kitchen, someone tapped him on the shoulder, stealing away their attention. Oh, right? Pyrrha's still here?

Did he always used to smile this much. It's exhausting the hell out of him. "Oh! Sorry, Pyrrha! Kind of got lost in the shuffle there!"

Before she's able to speak, Fate had other devious plans.

 _Attention all students! The Team Ceremonies are about to begin! Please come to the school's auditorium immediately!_

They all look up, having mixed reactions to the dreaded intercom. All of which amused Jaune in a heartless sort of way. Crushing defeat and melancholy affect the air and he ate it up, against the better, heroic part of his soul saying otherwise.

Saddened, Pyrrha sighed and smiled sadly at the knight. "Perhaps we can talk at a later time?"

Ruby frowned internally, he festered off it. Her jealousy's delicious and he wanted more. "I'd like that. Maybe after the team ceremony?"

...

The auditorium's overly loud and obnoxious and filled to the brim with excitement.

Jaune Arc loathed it all.

He hated the happiness. The joy. He hated it all. The positivity churned his stomach in a bad way. Everything about it made him sick. Not even his partner's anxiousness could make up for all of it. She's just a drop in the ocean of feeling. Honestly, he's only able to sense her because he's anchoring himself to her shyness in order to prevent the headache from murdering him.

His shield's slowly rusting away.

"Russel Thrush. Cardin Winchester. Dove Bronzewing. Sky Lark." Ozpin announced to the entire stadium. "The four of you retrieved the black bishop pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as... Team CRDL." Applause sounded at every direction. "Led by, Cardin Winchester."

Team CRDL walked off stage, and Ozpin stared down the podium at the next group of students but remained hesitant. Jaune momentarily raised a brow at his very well hidden emotion behind those glasses of his, studying the man in-depth.

"Blake Belladonna. Pyrrha Nikos. Weiss Schnee. And Yang Xiao Long. The four of you retrieved the white Rook pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team BWLN. Led by Blake Belladonna."

Disappointed and anger radiated off Weiss Schnee like a nuclear sub. Pyrrha Nikos couldn't tell whether to be happy or sad. Yang's giving her partner a celebratory wink and Blake's utterly confused on to why she'd been chosen as the team leader of such a mismatched group.

Jaune's not gonna lie, he's something close to dissatisfied for not getting Blake on his team. Another emotionless person could really be the help he needed. A friend who could understand his pain to a level of degree.

Such a shame.

"Jaune Arc. Lie Ren. Nora Valkyrie. Ruby Rose. The four of you retrieved the white Knight pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team ALRN. Led by..." Well, this is an interesting turn of events. The Headmasters seemed tangled on whom to choose to be a team leader. Like his plans hadn't gone exactly as he had hoped. "By Jaune Arc."

Ruby's quickly by his side, saying something along the lines of _bestest_ partners—he's still not sure whether or not that's a word—and imitated Yang by throwing her own weaker punch to his shoulder. The other two of his teammates were busy in their own little world, laughs and all. Perfect for the Arc, Nora's far too happy and Ren's a loose end he couldn't tie.

Not only that, but just the idea of being team leader's throwing him in a rather abnormal loop, and he's not the only one. Even the Headmaster's not too supportive of his choice, struggling internally between a fine line of pride and prejudice. Not ironic, just weird. Plainly weird. Judging by the way he looked over to his partner, Jaune couldn't figure out why Ozpin didn't just choose her right off the bat? It seemed like he wanted her above him, after all?

And just between him and the whispers, he didn't want to be team leader because he didn't care whether or not his team lived or die. Cold? Yes, very. But very, very true nonetheless. So if Ozpin suddenly decided that Ruby was a better fit, then all the more power to them both.

Sadly, Jaune doubted it'd be that easy. Minus the anxiety he felt from his partner, she's also releasing relief. Apparently, Ruby Rose did not want to be leader. That could prove to be a fork in his path.

Claps all around, Ozpin looked up to the roster of names. "Looks like things are shaping up to be... an interesting year."

He heard the words, but they all sound like gibberish to him. Even the dark whispers have quieted down due to the onslaught of emotions attacking from every conceivable angle imaginable. Shunning away the expected mood he's supposed to be acting out because it's simply too overwhelming to process. This only gave him time to think about his current status quo.

By all accounts, life should be overwhelming perfect.

Jaune Arc should be happy, scared, confused, and proud even. Any feeling should honestly overcome him in his moment of triumph and perseverance.

He felt absolutely nothing drowning in the sea of emotions.

* * *

 **Author Notes: Edited 1/9/2018**

 **Word count increase:** From 5000 to 9000

 **Blake Belladonna** – **BWLN** (Bold)

 **Jaune Arc** \- **ALRN** (Alizarin)


	3. Merlot

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing of RWBY.

 **Merlot**

 **By: Imyoshi**

After the ceremony, after the screams and cheers, and after the entire headache inducing trauma, Jaune Arc and his team finally reach their room for the night, immediately noticing the lack of everything but the bare essentials. Only beds and blank walls stood to greet Team ALRN. Doesn't stop their sugar fueled teammate from rushing forward and claiming the bed nearest the wall. Jumping on the poor furniture like a mad woman whose basic instinct was to jump on everything.

Jaune doesn't need _something_ to tell him Ruby's not going to be the only emotional outpost for him to lean on and feed off. At least Ren seemed to be the exact opposite and his own personal oasis in this desert of emotions and bone crushing hugs. Although, _who_ knows how long someone can stay sane with two overly active teammates bombarding them in a never-ending rainstorm of emotions and smiles. Sanity's a gift and rationality's a curse.

Beating the urge to roll his eyes, Jaune's eyes flickered over towards the bathroom door at the side, finding his mind focused solely on one task—to find a mirror. And fast. Not to wait and see Nora attempting to breaking her bed with all the consistent bouncing or watch her partner Ren and his misguided goal at subduing her. None of that frivolous nonsense for this Arc.

Excusing himself, he barely misses the crash from behind before shutting the door and flicking on the lights. Brightness burns his eyes from the sudden change in light and it takes a few seconds for them to adjust, but when they do, he almost lets out some emotion border lining on surprise and confused when he pulls down his hoodie. None of which actually make an appearance but his eyebrows do go up slightly from the moment he spots the bone like appendage attached to his neck.

Hearing about the strange feature on his neck and then _seeing_ it are two totally different things. Just glancing at the sharp rows of teeth sticking out almost beckons some emotion. Obviously no such thing happens and Jaune's waiting for those dark whispers to return to guide him, to make any sense, yet, they're oddly quiet for once, even when he reaches out. No longer hanging over Jaune's shoulder or residing in every corner of his shadow. Perhaps the strange urges were cutting him some slack or it's still recovering from the onslaught of the emotions from the ceremony. Maybe his body is still getting used to all of this and hence the drape of urges to begin with?

All very possible answers and all very unanswerable questions. None of which seemed to be getting an answer any time soon.

Rubbing his fingers on his new attachment, Jaune blinks at the reflection in the mirror, just now noticing his true lack of emotion. His facial features show nothing and he feels nothing. No wonder Ruby kept her distance from him after their initiation, even when she tried to make it not that noticeable. Ironically, she forgot about his power to sense emotions. No matter how hard his partner tried to hide it, Jaune had picked on her hesitation and reluctance to be around the Arc alone the moment she breathed. And in another world, that would've crushed his spirits. Unfortunately for him this wasn't another world and he truly was a freak which his very own partner had trouble being around.

He didn't care.

Still, he can see why Ruby had such a problem being around him alone. That much is obvious. And unless he fixed this, just like the Death Stalker disaster, more future problems could sprout and ruin everything. What was everything if he's truly being honest with himself? He's not too sure, but he would rather avoid that option in the near future. Problems led only to irrationality and irrationality led to an early death. Jaune preferred not to die a second time. This only left the Arc one choice on the matter at hand—to practice faking his emotions.

Straightening his back, Jaune attempted to smile, and it worked for the first second. The next second had his grin plastered on a little too tight and made him look more psychotic than affectionate. Now he sees what Ruby saw. He tries to fix his mistake with a few more practice attempts and manages to finally get his traditional Jaune Arc smile down to a tee! Added with the boney armor on his neck and dead looking eyes of course, but beggars can't be choosers.

"Well, that's done." His eyes move over the rest of appearance, falling over a hole in his armor right on the dead center where his heart was. "Huh?"

Spotting the hole in his armor from when the Beowolf must've struck him and nicked his chest plate, Jaune calmly reached out and rested his hand over the hole in the metal, lightly taking the time to check the damage. A strange sensation reaches his hand and he lightly rested his fingers on the damaged iron, going from feeling something afoot to _hearing_ something off, drumming offbeat in his ears.

Narrowing his eyes slightly, Jaune's voice loosened, "Is that... my heart? Why is it beating so... slowly?"

The sounds, the vibrations, even the thumps are all off tune.

Taking off his hoodie and armor in haste, one might actually mistake it for panic. That person would be dead wrong. Didn't matter, Jaune had already pulled off his hoodie and tossed the article of clothing away, eyes zeroing in on the new set of bones centered around the center of his chest. They're a set of ribs forming around his heart, white and just as durable as the bone appendage on his neck, wrapping around his torso and upper and lower to chest to meet up in the center. And when he touches them to get a feel, he's surprised he can feel how slow his heart was truly beating. Feel how cold his skin felt or how little it did to change his calm expression.

"What's happening to me? Is this what Aura supposed to do? Is this my semblance?" so many questions and no answers.

Trying to find some surviving warmth anywhere on his body, Jaune gives up and grips the sink, letting his hair fall with his head lowered. He's quiet, deathly quiet, taking his sweet time to get the information he's collected to truly sink in. By the time it does, he's neither sad nor happy, just eternally confused. Even more so when the dark whispers finally return from their absence, dropping a faint message, leaving it up to him whether to listen or not.

"There's no way I can hide this from my team forever." Jaune touches the mirror, shielding away his chest's reflection. "At least not my neck, but I should be able to hide this no problem. Might as well just get it over with and deal with it now rather than later."

Attempting another smile before getting out, Jaune glares at the faultiness of his try, wondering when smiling became an impossible challenge. Just moments ago he mastered the craft or so he thought. Damn it. Never has the idea of practicing his smile in the bathroom mirror seemed so downright silly.

Poking at the boney material, he runs his fingers along the substance, lacking any deluded ideas or perception. The simple fact about it, "This is gonna take some time."

Hate or sadness fails to reach him. Hints of indignation and ample loads of curiosity replace all the others. The rest are too useless. And then there's that hollow feeling in his chest, acting out.

Hunger is the first thing that comes to his mind. Hunger for what though, he's not entirely sure. Could be the negative emotions he felt earlier or perhaps an even stronger sensation he's failed to reach—failed to satisfy.

 _Knock! Knock!_

"Jaune! Hurry up! I have to go and the hallway bathroom is too far away!"

Ruby Rose.

His partner and overall ball of sunshine whose emotions are sewed deeply into her sleeve, the perfect partner for an apathetic man and his monster like appearance and hunger for all things innocent and fearful.

"Give me a second, Rubes!" It's a lie. He's perfectly done already and doesn't need any more time to dillydally. Jaune just can't resist feeding off her squirming and desperation. An addiction he can't break.

Faking a smile—time to see if those whole five minutes practicing in the mirror paid off—he opens the door and is tackled out by a blur of rose petals. So much for smiling, anything would've been appeased the little reaper and her blatant regard for manners.

Grabbing his hoodie back off the floor after Ruby throws it out; Jaune forgoes his armor, just now seeing how his team has decorated the room. Posters hid the wall and a new set of crimson curtains have been added to their window. Even the bed sheets haven't been spared from the treatment with one sporting cookies and strawberries and the other with pancakes drenched in maple syrup. Only two beds remained free from their makeover and Jaune knows it is Ren and his.

"Whoa!" Nora's up his personal space, acting very Ruby like when she spots the thing on his neck. "What's that? It looks so amazing! Can I touch it?"

Jaune doesn't bother saying no as her finger has already made contact with his bone platting before he can stop her. No point now, "I think it's my semblance. I'm not too sure. Just got it today."

He leaves out the part that he just got his Aura today as well, seeing no reason to up their suspicions. Clearly Nora has none since her emotions are like a book to him. Ren's a little more apprehensive but accepts the explanation, even going so far to shoot Jaune an apologetic look for Nora's eccentric behavior. And Ruby's busy doing lady things in the bathroom, tired and mentally exhausted from such a long day. Jaune should know, he's felt her emotions from the minute they met in Emerald Forest.

Nora sees the rows of teeth near his neck, "Does it hurt? Can you feel when I poke you like this?" _Poke_!

Jaune tilts his heads, "No and yes."

Overjoyed, Nora pokes him again, clearly having fun at Jaune's expense. The whispers return and are amused at Nora's antics, which actually surprised the Arc for a split-second. Before he could ask, they're gone and Nora's being pulled away by Ren.

"Now, now, Nora, we should get ready to go to bed. Classes start tomorrow and I don't want you falling asleep in class." His tone leaves no room for argument, unless if Jaune decided to jump in. Of course he doesn't. "Sorry about that, Jaune."

Build up trust, "Hehe, no problems. We're a team."

It's impossible for Jaune to ignore the waves of pure love coming from the hyper girl as she mock salutes Ren and pokes Jaune's boney feature just one last time, "Okay, Ren! Time for bed! Goodnight, Fearless Leader! Don't let the bedbugs bite!"

She's in bed faster than Ruby can move, tucking herself greedily into her covers. Sleep takes her in seconds and Ren looks over his shoulder and nods his head at Jaune before venturing into his own bed for the night with Ruby already exiting the bathroom and tuckering herself in with a set of PJ's he never even saw her change into. In minutes Jaune's the last one left awake, not tired from the day's events at all. Unlike his team here who are tired from all the emotional stress of passing a test and fighting humanity's greatest threat, Jaune had energy to spare and emotions no longer weighed heavily down on him.

The urges have grown stronger from the lack of emotions bombarding him and he tries to get some sleep, hoping to put this day's events behind him. Sleep doesn't come through in the end and he's left lying in bed for over an hour before finally sitting up and looking out the crack of the currents Ruby's set up. The broken moon shines over his figure for a brief moment, and then he's already out the room before he can stop himself.

Jaune stops the seconds he closes the door, "Where am I going? What am I even doing? None of this is making any sense." Ignoring his own questions, Jaune pulls his hoodie over and his feet take him outside of Beacon to the courtyard and he basked in the broken moon's light.

His instincts rev up under the moonlight and he actually has to fight an urge to howl. Those dark whispers have return clearer than ever, nonetheless, no matter how clearer they become all, Jaune still can't make out much of the nonsense that comes forth. Only bits and pieces make some sense to him. Like the part where the whispers tell him to venture out to Emerald Forest. That he can clearly understand and still be completely tangled about.

By now he's figured out to not fight the murky voice, learning it's better to go along with the flow rather than fight the impossible. Just like with happened with the Death Stalker and his partner's killer curiosity. If he had tried to do what Ruby wanted, fight and be all heroic, the outcome would've been sorely different. And different wasn't always better. Not by a long shot.

Getting his fill of the moonlight, Jaune followed his instincts and stalked out of Beacon's courtyard, making it to Emerald Forest in a short time. There he steps into the forest and walks without a purpose. Without a direction or even sense of time. He doesn't get too far before he stumbles into a lone Beowolf who's sizing him up from behind a tree. That, however, doesn't last too long and they're both observing each other, feeling a kinship spring to life in their hollow chests. No emotion is shared. None of them has any to give. Neither needing such a worthless attachment weighing them down.

Fear is an emotion Jaune's had following him like his shadow his whole life. Now, without it, he's not too sure he misses that useless emotion and all the drawbacks that came alongside it. Nor does he miss any semblance of panic when he spots this Beowolf lurking before him. Emptiness is the only thing trailing his path now and the feeling leaves him incapable of caring. Incapable of anything but relating to his creature standing before him and all its magnificent form.

Truly, the last remnant of emotions he had died during the initiation.

"Hey," he does a small wave which alerts the Beowolf. Jaune immediately lowers his hoodie, remembering how this calmed down the Death Stalker. "Don't worry. See? We're the same... I think?"

Dropping its guard, the Beowolf lurks forward and hesitantly moves. Jaune sort of does the same, bringing his hand out to reach out and connect, only this time Ruby isn't here to spoil the fun. Resistance holds him back no longer and eventually his hand and the Grimm's skull touch. A jolt races through Jaune, alerting every cell in his body from the powerful sense of strength radiating from the simple sense of touch.

Definitely the same and that shattered the Arc's soul in two.

"Am I a monster?" The urges return and agrees with Jaune, fueling his confusion, trapping away bits of his soul. The Grimm before him only seals the deal when the Beowolf nestled its snout on Jaune's neck, sniffing its new companion. "... I'm a monster. Me? A monster?"

No force in Remnant can stop Jaune from taking a step back after uncovering the dark truth. Stripped of his emotions, the reality is impossible to deny, not consumed and blinded by blasted feelings that impair the senses. Parts of him—the remnants of his Arc pride—try to deny this unmanageable claim. A pointless struggle, one that cannot be stopped or denied any more than the sun setting and rising or humanity's forever fight against the Grimm. Speaking of the Grimm?

Recovering from his shock, Jaune's eyes widen a tiny bit when the Beowolf stands up on two feet to howl to the broken moon, standing a good three feet taller than Jaune. His eyes aren't drawn to anywhere else but the familiar set of ribs sticking out of the Grimm's blacken fur, making it difficult for Jaune to not notice the similarities. And an ache forms right at the center of his chest, masking surprise with subtle pain. Hiding doubt and acceptance in the same corner of his mind.

Destroying what's left of his innocence.

 _You're supposed to be dead! I saw you die! I saw you die._

 _What? What do you mean you saw me die?_

 _It's exactly what I mean! I. Saw. You. Die. When that Beowolf tore apart your throat, I saw the life drain away from your eyes._

Those memories of Pyrrha accusing him of death only now make complete sense to him. Sure, before it cleared up the reason she abandoned him. Now there are new pieces of the puzzle he calls his life that have fallen onto his lap. Pieces he never even knew were missing, very less existed. Pieces he doesn't even know where to place. Connect. Cherish. Did the Beowolf that killed or attack him have something to do with his odd transformation? Seems like the most logical conclusion in a messed up sort of way. Kind of hard to refuse with the same boney features hitting him smack hard on the face.

Touching the bone on his neck, Jaune looks up to the broken moon, "I'm... a monster?" There's still a part of him that doesn't believe that, refusing to make the claim real. He holds desperately onto that small bubble of hope. Possibly wondering when it'll finally burst.

Rationality and irrationality. They've both abandoned him.

Suddenly both him and the Grimm stop whatever they're doing, looking off in a direction where a heavy load of anger and fear is being released. Far the sensation springs to life and the sweet taste of fears grabs at Jaune's eternal hunger. He can tell the Beowolf feels the same, licking its teeth at the mere thought of a tasty treat. By the time Jaune realizes this means that a human is nearby—since he's learned that Grimm do not have emotions—the Beowolf stops at the edge of a tree and looks back at Jaune with a sense of longing. A sense of pure trust coming from a creature of darkness and absolute hate.

Stuck at a crossroad, Jaune looks back towards Beacon Academy where his team is sleeping, wondering what they would do. However, the urges have returned with a full force and demand Jaune follow the Grimm and feast. It's a tear between his soul and this darkness in his heart, one he cannot win. Not now and maybe not even ever. Forever trapped in limbo of his body.

Every little thing just continues to make Jaune's heart hurt more and more and he wants the pain to simply stop. The hunger to go away! For his life to go back to normal! For him to be free of this terrible curse! None of which happens. Monty ignores him and the hunger building up his soul threatens to consume him whole. And when he closes his eyes, letting his head hang down under the broken moonlight, the small resistance of his humanity gets buried underneath the darkness dwelling inside him.

There's no getting around it.

He's a monster.

...

Running alongside the Beowolf to the source of emotional buildup, Jaune smirks into the run, surprised he's keeping up with the Grimm or the lack of tiredness reaching his lungs. Although, he's sure the darn thing is moving slow on purpose for his benefit, not its. Nonetheless, the gesture's appreciated. And before he knows it, two other Beowolves have joined them in their run, each one taking their sweet time at glaring at the human trending together with another of their kind. Somehow they don't attack him on the spot. Most likely due to his new companion growling out some order he cannot understand for the life of him. Helps his friend is twice the size of the other Beowolves.

Finally they reach the source of anxiety and Jaune has to hide behind a bush to stop and stare at the people dressed in white outfits that consisted of masks and a bloody panther etched on the back of their jacket. There are three of them, each of them have a broad weapon, and they seem positively frighten when the Beowolves jump out from the woods and lung at them. What they were doing in Emerald Forest at the dead of night is a bigger mystery to him than his powers. In the off corner Jaune can see other lower level Grimm turning into ash from being beaten by these people with deep gashes all over their bodies and the whispers urge him to go and drain the power before it's gone and wasted away in vast nothingness.

Can't say he's not tempted. His hunger is eating away at his soul like crazy. As a matter of fact, it's too much to bear and Jaune's sneaking up to the bodies, ignoring the Beowolves fighting the humans in the off distance. Maybe he would feel bad for passing them without helping, but those emotions died a long time ago. Plus he lacks a weapon and has no desire to help. No longer needing to keep up appearance for the sake of others.

Reaching the dying Beowolves, the urges tell him to reach out to consume and he does, kneeling down and seeing whatever's left of the ashes moving towards his outstretched hand. They hover into his sleeve and his boney neck, getting absorbed into the bones without delay. There are only three of them as well, and they were much weaker than the Beowolves fighting the humans back there or the Major Ursa he absorbed earlier, but he does feel a slight buildup of power in his body. Not much, but some.

Feeding off the fear those three humans are releasing; Jaune stands up to look over his shoulder and spots one of the Beowolves tear apart on one of the humans. Teeth rip through flesh and the man's cries are drowned out from the monster's growls. Another human makes the mistake to check up on his comrade and is taken by surprise from the same attack that apparently did Jaune in, a quick, devastating bite to the neck. The third hastily drops her weapon and makes a run for it, spotting Jaune from the corner of her eye. A sense of anger, hurt, and hatred overcomes her before joy replaces all of that and she's running towards him with an outstretched hand.

 _Shred_!

Blood splatters on Jaune's emotionless face—no longer seeing the reason to hide his true self where nobody knows him—from a claw cutting through the female's back. She looks down at the deep gash and claw peeking out from her chest, afraid and scared. Blood slowly seeps down her white clothes, staining them with the same color as the symbol on her back. Even still, she pleads and reaches out for Jaune to help her, then her eyes fall on the bone fragment attached to Jaune's neck before the light in her eyes die and so do her emotions.

Then the Beowolf tears her in two, covering the forest floor in blood and gore. Jaune actually has to wipe away the blood stained on his cheek, liking the feeling of it on his skin but preferring not to have any on his person at all. The dark whispers agree with him, taking immense joy in all the power and fear they ate up... but it didn't quench that uncontrollable hunger in his soul. Satisfied it for now? Perhaps. But Jaune can still feel the hunger burn deep down. Resting and waiting for its next meal.

How absurd.

Troublesome or not though, the Arc has much bigger problems to handle, like the fact he just saw three people get killed by the Grimm and he didn't even bat an eye. Never had he wavered. Jaune had watched the random strangers die, refusing to offer a helping hand, breaking everything the Arc's stood for or the very reason he even bothered attending Beacon Academy.

What's the point now?

Hunter? Hero? What does it matter anymore?

 _Munch_! _Gnaw_! _Roar_!

Hearing and noting his _friends_ devour the humans, the Arc has to look away to keep his stomach in check. Monster or not, there's only so much he can handle before he loses his dinner. Emotions or lack of therefore can only shield him so much from a human's bones being torn apart in the jaws of a Beowolf. Blood may not have much of an effect on him, thank Monty, but he's always had a weak stomach. Time to leave before that becomes ever more apparent and he loses whatever standing he has with the Beowolves.

With a simple wave, he turns back towards Beacon, "I think I'll call it a night. Goodnight."

The two other Beowolves he never formally met stop him, instantly jumping in front of his person. They move around him, gnawing for a reaction. Doesn't last too long when the third Beowolf joins in and shields Jaune from its pack, growling even more utter nonsense for the Arc to listen. A lone minute passes between them and the Beowolves move towards Jaune, never once feeling any sort of fear coming off the strange human before them. The Grimm aren't even sure the human standing in front of them is one, lost to the strange hollowness of its soul. The death in his eyes. And the lack of emotions.

Jaune reassures them by bumping a fist on his neck's bone fragment but they're still skeptical and the dark whispers have returned to urge Jaune to fix the issue before it blooms. Tracing along the hesitation the Beowolves are showing, a spark burns inside Jaune's head and he promptly removes his hoodie for the Grimm to see his boney rib cage structure attached to his entire torso. The lack of fear only cinches it.

Pressing their snouts to his chest, the Beowolves smell the air of Death plaguing Jaune Arc and growl an affectionate roar, licking Jaune on the face before taking off into the vast forest with the remains of the humans still littering the forest floor. Only a single Beowolf stays behind to watch as Jaune moved across the battlefield and towards a crate he only now noticed. A weird logo of a snowflake encased the side of the crate, hardly grabbing Jaune's attention. Instead he's more focused on the contents of the crate, wondering what these people gave their pathetic lives for.

Imagine his lack of surprise when he finds crystals of all varieties and sizes inside. Colors covered all his vision and he slowly picks one up, remembering Weiss mentioning something along the words of Dust to Ruby during their first meeting. The glare from the shard glows in his hand and Jaune drops the Dust shard back in the crate, wondering what to do with the blasted thing.

Seemed like a total waste to abandon it. Yet he had little to no use for it.

Racking his brain for an idea, Jaune settles to push the crate into the forest and behind a large tree with a heavy bush, hiding the crate for now. Future uses might be needed and he never knows when it might come in handy. At least his new friend hasn't left him yet, finishing off the remains of the poor humans who fought and died. Better them than him.

Finished for now, he wipes his forehead free from sweat; trekking back into the Beowolf's feeding ground. There their eyes meet for the briefest of moments under the bloody grass and ominous moonlight, hiding this dark secret from the rest of Remnant forever. Time moves too slow and Jaune finally feels tired enough to sleep the day away.

"I gotta go now." That kinship is twice as strong when the Beowolf pounces forward and licks Jaune's face. "Haha! Come on! That tickles!" The Grimm stops, waiting on Jaune. "Gosh, you're a much _friendlier_ Grimm than those other two."

Observing the Grimm tilting its head at him, Jaune feels compelled to bond with a creature that understood his pain. His hunger! His everything! Karma may be cruel, but not even Fate and Destiny can rob him of a faithful companion. And being surrounded around all this blood makes the Arc think having a friend will keep him from completely succumbing to the darkness brewing in his heart. Ironic since it's a Grimm. A creature of pure darkness and Death.

"Wanna be friends?" another lick. "Okay! Okay! How about a name?" Yet another lick, "You really are much friendlier than those other Grimm. I would call you friendlier, but that's not a name. At least not a good one. Not for a Grimm. How about a shorter version of that?" The Beowolf waits for Jaune, claws pressed to his chest in an eager fashion. The leader of Team ALRN pays no mind. "Hn... how about... Fend...er... Fenrir? Fenrir! I like that. What about you?"

The Grimm likes that as well, licking Jaune on the face once more.

...

Sneaking back into his team's room takes no effort. They're all knocked out from the day's events and both Ruby and Nora seem like heavy sleepers. Jaune might have to watch out for Ren in the future if he ever sneaks out again. Guy looks like a ninja while he sleeps. Always prepared and ready to strike at a moment's notice. A possible fatal flow for Jaune in the near future, him and his dark whispers agree.

Kicking off his shoes, Jaune pushed away the emotions his team released while they slept, not wanting any happy emotions to kill his satisfied hunger. Having his emotions stripped away but given the power to sense others is cruel beyond all reason. This must be what the Grimm feel on a daily basis? How troublesome and disturbing. Truly, truly cruel.

Lying down on his bed, Jaune sighed and turned his head over to glare at the moonlight peeking through the window. The emotionless orbs called his eyes leave his thoughts to wander free and think about his possible future. Nothing makes sense to him. Nothing! Death doesn't even impact his soul. Just recalling those humans getting torn to shreds didn't weaken Jaune's resolve, though if he was to guess, it did murder whatever remained of his humanity.

Humanity? What a strange word. So lack luster and useless to him. Humanity spoke of such high levels of trust and companionship between a race of animals. Jaune should know since he was once part of that very pack of people. Now he belonged nowhere but with the monsters that threatened humanity and it's very prime existence.

Meaning in essence he's a threat to humanity. But that's crazy. Right?

Doesn't matter. Not anymore.

Closing his eyes, Jaune's dark whispers numb the emotions pressing down all around them, allowing him to finally find peace for a short time in a school where he felt like a wolf in sheep's clothing.

* * *

 **Author Notes:** This is not a happy story. Anyone expecting otherwise will be sorely disappointed.


End file.
